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Stakeholders have alleged that the Anti-Corruption Commission has failed to act independently to fight corruption in the past two decades despite officially being an independent agency and rather had been used as a weapon by the political governments since its establishment in 2004.

They observe that the agency has rarely taken into account the corruption allegations brought against the powerful ones, particularly the politicians, bureaucrats and businesspeople belonging to or associated with the ruling parties.

The commission’s independence is only on paper, stakeholders have said, alleging that the commission in most cases failed to initiate an inquiry or file any cases against powerful quarters without a go-ahead from the governments.

Transparency International Bangladesh executive director Iftekharuzzaman while talking to ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· said, ‘The ACC never had played a role as an independent body as the partisan governments held the agency hostage, while it was all through controlled by the bureaucrats.’

‘All the political governments used the ACC as a weapon for harassing opposition people in the past, but the trend should change to fight corruption,’ he emphasised.

He further said that the partisan governments appointed politically loyal bureaucrats as the commission’s chair and commissioners.

Commission officials have said that the chairman and two commissioners take all the decisions with no scopes for any other official to independently initiate any inquiries.

‘There is a search committee to appoint the chairman and commissioners, but there is no policy regarding selecting the chair and commissioners, and none but those close to the government get appointed in these posts,’ said former commission director general for legal and prosecution affairs Moyeedul Islam who held the position from April 2015 to June 2019.

‘The government appointed people close to it. After being appointed, they worked according to the will and interest of the political governments instead of exercising its role as an independent body,’ he said.

‘The independence is only on paper. The ACC has not shown its independent power since its beginning despite having strong laws,’ Moyeedul said.

The anti-corruption commission law has a provision to introduce its own prosecution unit to deal with graft cases, but it has not been able to do so in the last two decades of its establishment.

Stakeholders further said that partisan lawyers were appointed to prosecute the cases that made the whole process questionable in terms of maintaining neutrality.

After the Awami League government came to power for the fourth consecutive term in January, media reports came out about the corruption of former inspector general of police Benazir Ahmed, former army chief general Aziz Ahmed, former Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia, and National Board of Revenue official Matiur Rahman, leading the commission to decide to launch inquiries.

Commission officials said that the agency’s decision to launch inquiries against Matiur and Benazir came as usual following the nod from then Awami League government. But Aziz Ahmed and Asaduzzaman were spared the probe since they were still in the government’s good books, they alleged.

The Transparency International Bangladesh in last December first raised the issue of the former land minister and Awami League leader Saifuzzaman Chowdhury’s business abroad worth over $203 billion.

Anti-graft bodies, including the TIB, also published reports analysing the election affidavits of the Awami League lawmakers and ministers manifesting an abnormal rise in wealth.

But the commission did not scrutinise the affidavits as it did not get a go-ahead from the government, said a commission official.

But following the fall of the Awami League government on August 5, the agency launched inquiries and took decision for inquiries against at least 80 former lawmakers and ministers in a month.

During Awami League regime, the anti-corruption agency also overlooked the allegations of massive corruption against many businesspeople, including Salman F Rahman, Chowdhury Nafeez Sarafat, S Alam Group chairman Mohammad Saiful Alam, and former Water Supply and Sewerage Authority managing director Taqsem A Khan, all loyal to the regime.

The Anti-Corruption Commission was established on November 21, 2004, during the tenure of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led government, abolishing the Bureau of Anti-Corruption, amid pressure from various national and international quarters to establish an independent body to fight corruption.

The Bureau of Anti-Corruption, which operated under the Prime Minister’s Office, was allegedly used to harass political opponents.

Their expectations for an independent anti-corruption agency, however, remain largely unfulfilled till today.

Allegations are also there that the commission filed corruption cases or gave clean chit at the direction by the government.

Although the then BNP-led government took pride in establishing an independent anti-corruption body, its activities made hardly any progress during its tenure.

‘The ACC could not conduct any cases or inquiries until the caretaker government came to power in 2007,’ Moyeedul Islam said.

‘The formulation of its rules and anti-graft activities made progress and were strengthened under the lead of the new chairman during the caretaker government,’ he added.

The agency filed a massive number of cases and arrested a number of people, politicians, businesspeople and bureaucrats, among them, during the army-controlled caretaker government in 2006–2008.

The scene again vastly changed from 2009 onward with the Awami League-led government’s ascent to power, leading the commission to withdraw all cases or halt proceedings against the Awami League leaders, party chief Sheikh Hasina among them. At the same time, filing of cases and proceedings of cases against the opposition leaders and activists and those loyal to them were continued by the commission.

The commission while withdrew cases against Sheikh Hasina, continued cases against BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia.  BNP leaders and activists were convicted and allegedly harassed in graft cases throughout the past 15 years of the Awami League regime.

In a sharp turnaround since the downfall of the Awami government on August 5 through a student-led mass uprising, the anti-corruption commission is now withdrawing the graft cases against BNP-Jamaat people while has started filing cases against the Awami League people.

In his criticism of the agency the TIB’s Iftekharuzzaman said, ‘Those who are opponent of the government, or if the government is displeased with anyone for any reason, the ACC is prompt to take action.’

‘But the ACC is unable to take action against those who are close to power as the corrupt people enjoyed a culture of impunity, and it was reality,’ he said, adding that the commission had been turned into a partisan institution.

Commission secretary Khorsheda Yasmeen, however, denied the allegations. The commission is working independently as per law, she told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ·.

‘We are filing cases against corrupt people, even including ministers, lawmakers, and bureaucrats, as the commission is working independently,’ she stressed.

Bangladesh slides two steps to the 10th position from the bottom among the 180 countries covered by the Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index 2023. The TIB termed Bangladesh’s performance as ‘disappointing.’

The transparency watchdog recently recommended for the removal of the administrative and financial powers from the commission secretary that was given by the commission itself through an order in 2023.

It also suggested that appointments by deputation of government officials at higher levels, from director and above, should be stopped and a permanent Task Force should be formed to fight corruption.