Former secretary Moinuddin Abdullah named new ACC chairman

The government has named Moinuddin Abdullah as the new chairman of the Anti-Corruption Commission.

The Cabinet Division announced the appointment of the former secretary to the agriculture ministry on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Md Jahurul Haque, former chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, has been made a new commissioner of the national anti-graft agency.

Moinuddin is replacing Iqbal Mahmud as the chairman of the ACC, whose term will end on Mar 13, while the tenure of Commissioner (Investigation) AFM Aminul Islam expires at the same time.

Another member of the commission, Md Mozammel Haque Khan, a former senior secretary of the home ministry, will stay in office until July 2023.

The law requires the government to choose the ACC chairman from a pool of three commissioners, each appointed for a term of five years.

After retiring as the senior secretary of the agriculture ministry in August 2018, Moinuddin was appointed as the managing director of Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation or PKSF in July 2019.

Born in Cumilla in 1959, Moinuddin obtained his honours and master's degrees from Dhaka University’s Department of Soil Science and joined public administration in 1983.

His long career as a public servant includes positions in the Ministry of Housing and Public Works and the Ministry of Industries and the Prime Minister's Office.

As the ACC chairman, Moinuddin will have the rank, salary and allowances equivalent to a judge of the Supreme Court’s Appellate Division, according to a government notice. 

While Commissioner Jahurul’s rank, salary, allowances and other facilities will be similar to that of a judge of the High Court Division.

On Jan 28, the government constituted a five-strong committee led by Justice Hasan Foez Siddique of the Appellate Division to recommend names for the chairman and a commissioner of the ACC.

The committee was asked to shortlist two people for each post.