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Published : 10 Nov 2020, 02:16 AM
The number of chargesheets submitted to court by the ACC also dropped by around 50 percent in this period.
A rise in the number of complaints on corruption reflects the public trust in the national antigraft agency, believes its Commissioner Mozammel Haque Khan.
Shifting the cases of fraud to the police is the reason behind the drop in number of cases, he said.
People sought help from the ACC to fight against corruption, but it has failed to reciprocate their trust, alleged Iftekharuzzaman, the executive director of Transparency International, Bangladesh or TIB.
The government formed the commission in 2004 by dissolving the Anti-Corruption Bureau. Justice Sultan Hossain Khan was the first chairman of the ACC.
The commission caught the public imagination in 2007 with a slew of cases leading to arrests of politicians and businessmen during the army-backed caretaker government. Former army officer Hassan Mashhud Chowdhury was chairman at that time. He was replaced by former secretary Golam Rahman in 2009 when the 14-Party Grand Alliance led by the Awami League came to power.
Former secretary Iqbal Mahmood has been in charge of the commission since 2016 when he took over from chairman Md Badiuzzaman.
ACC data showed that it investigated 1,007 complaints out of 12,990 in 2016. The rate of investigation in 2019 was 1,710 out a total of 21,371 complaints.
“An increase in people’s trust in the ACC has caused the number of complaints to double. The commission is determined to do quality investigation,” said Commissioner Khan.
The hotline introduced by the ACC may also be a reason behind the rise in the number of complaints, TIB’s Iftekharuzzaman said.
“People saw hope in their efforts to end the corruption issue by lodging complaints through the hotline. However, it has not materialised much,” he said.
The number of cases filed by the ACC remained between 216 and 359 in the four years with no visible progress in the rate.
After the ACC Act was amended in 2013, the commission sent most of the cases over fraud or forgery to the police, apart from those filed against government employees.
Also, the ACC was left with the power to investigate only one offence - corruption and bribery - among the 27 related offences, after the Money Laundering Prevention Act was amended in 2015. Three other bodies were empowered to investigate the rest of the offences.
These changes might have caused the drop in numbers of investigations and cases, Khan said.
But Iftekharuzzaman blamed a lack of skill among the ACC officials for the dwindling cases and investigations.
The commission submitted 535 chargesheets to court WHEN??????. The number dropped to 267 in 2019.
The commission has been careful in investigating the cases, and thus, submission of chargesheets dropped, said Khan. “Punishment of the offenders can be ensured when the cases are put before the judiciary through a flawless investigation,” he said.
The rate of punishment in ACC cases, however, has increased to 63 percent in 2019 from 37 percent in 2015.
ACC officials consider it as a “big achievement” but the TIB executive director expressed dissatisfaction.
“They (ACC) take action against some low-profile or mid-level officials, but not against the big shots or influential people,” he said.
