Reform commission report
47 recommendations to reinforce ACC
The ACC reform commission has recommended increasing the number of commissioners, formation of a search committee, law amendments, salary raise and additional incentives to establish the ACC as a strong, effective and ombudsman agency
The Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) reform commission has made 47-point recommendations to strengthen the anti-graft watchdog, including declaring misuse of constitutional and legal power and bribes illegal and permanently revoking the provision to legalise black money.
The commission placed these recommendations in the report submitted to chief adviser of the interim government Dr. Muhammad Yunus on Wednesday.
The interim government, which came to power through the July uprising, has been talking about reforms in various sectors since taking over. As part of this, the government has formed a total of 11 reform commissions in two phases.
The reform commissions on electoral system, police administration, judiciary, the ACC, public administration and the reform commission on constitution were formed in the first week of October last year.
These commissions were scheduled to submit their report by the first week this January. The government, however, on 3 January extended the deadline for the submission of the reports.
Of those commissions, the public administration reform commission extended the deadline up to 31 January. The deadline for the judiciary reform commission was also extended up to 31 January. The commissions formed in the second phase are scheduled to submit the report by the end of next month.
The ACC reform commission has recommended increasing the number of commissioners, formation of a search committee, law amendments, salary raise and additional incentives to establish the ACC as a strong, effective and ombudsman agency.
Headed by Iftekharuzzaman, this reform commission started its work on 3 October.
Fighting corruption not the task of ACC alone
The reform commission says there is no national anti-corruption policy in the country. Fighting corruption is not the task of ACC alone. Several state and non-state agencies also have some roles to play in this regard. For instance, the parliament, law and judiciary division; administration; the Bangladesh Army; the business sector; political parties and the civic society must play some anti-corruption roles.
The commission also proposed to appoint the ACC secretary, director general and directors through competitions to make it free of bureaucracy. Those who feel they are efficient to work for the ACC can apply for these posts
The proposed national policy will determine the roles to be played by state and non-state organisations and which will help monitor how much of the anti-corruption initiatives are being implemented.
The reform commission believes money laundering cannot be stopped due to lack of some specific laws. A person, who is at the helm of an organisation or a ministry, takes decisions in his own interest or in the interest of persons close to him. A law regarding conflict of interest is needed to stop this.
The S Alam Group has set examples by founding several anonymous companies. The information of anonymous institutions remains undisclosed. The commission said they think the people of the country do not know about these anonymous institutions. Sometimes, even the relevant authorities do not have the chance to know about these anonymous companies. So there should be a national registrar with all information regarding the anonymous agencies. Several countries of the world have this.
Stress on disclosure of electoral income and expenditure of political parties
The commission has made several recommendations to bring transparency in election time financing. They say every political party must disclose their election income and expenditures on a regular basis. Accountability must be ensured in case there is not enough information in the election affidavit or the candidate hides information and the asset statement does not match the legal source of income. All people’s representatives from national to local level must submit asset statements, including the assets of the candidate’s family members, within three months of being elected, which has to be updated every year. The election commission will continue to publish it as long as they serve as the lawmakers.
The commission also recommended bringing all service sectors under automation. It says bribery is not a crime in the private sector as yet. Although bribery is illegal in the private sector as well as the public sector under the International Anti-corruption commission, it has not been implemented in our country as yet.
The commission recommended several legislative reforms to strengthen the ACC. The Corruption Disclosure Protection Act is one of them. A new law should be introduced that protects the persons who disclose the information regarding corruption.
To build an efficient ACC, we have to bring positive changes in politics and bureaucracy. Otherwise, the ACC won’t be an efficient organisationIfterkharuzzaman
There is a law titled Disclosure of Information in Public Interest (Protection) Act, 2011. However, there is no implication of this act and is not widely publicised. This act is not enough to protect the information providers. So a recommendation has been made to amend the law and make it effective through proper publicity.
The commission also proposed bringing all bank accounts of every citizen in home and abroad under “common reporting practice”. It will enable the relevant authorities like the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) to keep a track of all financial transactions automatically. It will be published as annual reports. Already some 122 countries have come under this practice. India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka also came under this. But the system is yet to be launched in Bangladesh.
ACC recruitment and the search committee
The commission has proposed some specific recommendations over the recruitment process of the ACC. The commission proposed to appoint five commissioners, including a woman, to ensure professional diversity considering the depth of corruption in the country. The tenure of each commission will be four years.
The reform commission feels that increasing the number of commissioners will not come to any work. There should be diversity in the recruitment process too. People from professions affiliated with the activities of the ACC should be appointed. The ACC will have to move away from the tendency of appointing only from the bureaucrats.
The reform commission wants the ACC to be independent and effective. However, that does not mean that the ACC will be beyond accountability. The ACC will be praised for their good works and will be held accountable for failing to work well.
The commission also recommended converting the search committee for appointing the ACC chairman and commissioners into a search and review committee. They proposed two main tasks of the search committee - verification during the recruitment process and publishing a review report on the activities of the ACC every six months.
The reform commission also recommended formation of the seven-member selection committee to stop ACC appointment on the basis of political consideration. The second most senior justice after the chief justice at the Supreme Court will be elected the head of this selection committee autonomously.
The other members of the proposed selection committee will be a senior High Court lawyer, the controller general of accounts (CGA), a member selected by the parliament leader, a member selected by the opposition in the parliament, a member from the former chief justice who has experience in anti-corruption activities.
The commission also proposed to appoint the ACC secretary, director general and directors through competitions to make it free of bureaucracy. Those who feel they are efficient to work for the ACC can apply for these posts.
There were also several other recommendations, including formation of a separate prosecution department, a training academy, revoking the Section 54(3) of the constitution and doubling the salaries of the ACC officials.
Besides, the commission recommended keeping a separate disciplinary unit in the ACC. The main task of this unit will be identifying corrupted officials and dismissing them. There is also a recommendation of monitoring through counter intelligence to prevent ACC officials from getting involved in corruption.
Speaking to Prothom Alo, Ifterkharuzzaman said, “To build an efficient ACC, we have to bring positive changes in politics and bureaucracy. Otherwise, the ACC won’t be an efficient organisation.”
* This report appeared on the print and online versions of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten in English by Ashish Basu