THIS is unacceptable that the Anti-Corruption Commission has not yet investigated the affidavits that the candidates submitted before the 12th national elections held on January 7. The affidavits showed an abnormal increase in wealth of most of the former lawmakers and ministers. Candidates in national and local elections are required to submit affidavits with eight kinds of information in keeping with a 2005 High Court ruling. While most candidates tend to conceal their wealth and many understate the value of their assets, the affidavits adequately show an abnormal increase in wealth. The affidavits showed that incomes and wealth of many candidates, especially those rerunning for the position of the member of parliament, had increased by 200鈥�8,000 per cent. Such an abnormal increase certainly shows an association between tenure in office and a rapid increase in income and wealth, suggesting corrupt practices of those who were entrusted with public duties and were under the pledge not to seek self-interest. No state agency such as the commission at hand, the Election Commission or the National Board of Revenue, however, has scrutinised the affidavits properly. Such inaction on part of the state agencies makes the entire practice of submitting affidavits futile.
Transparency International Bangladesh released a report before the 12th national elections after analysing the affidavits of candidates and found that almost all candidates rerunning in the elections had amassed a huge amount of wealth that did not match their known sources of income. It showed that liquid assets of former lawmaker Noor-E-Alam Chowdhury had increased by 8,324 per cent, the moveable wealth of former lawmaker Meher Afroze Chumki by 7,692.31 per cent, the assets of former food minister by 6,350.18 per cent and the liquid wealth of former finance minister by 6138.66 per cent, to mention a few. Moreover, understating the value of assets was also rampant. Former social welfare minister Nuruzzaman Ahmed in his affidavit showed that the prices of his 25-bigha plot were only Tk 31,500; former state minister for water resources Zahid Faruk showed the price of his flat at Baridhara DOHS to be only Tk 1.3 lakh; former finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal showed the price of an eight-storey building at Gulshan-2 to be only Tk 35 lakh while former state minister for youth and sports Zahid Ahsan Russell showed that the value of his wife鈥檚 148 bharis of gold was only Tk 40,000. The report also mentioned that many candidates hid information on their assets abroad. An abnormal increase in wealth was also noticed in the affidavits of candidates rerunning for positions in upazila council elections.
After the fall of Awami League government amid a student-mass uprising, Awami League leaders, including most former lawmakers and ministers, have either fled or gone in hiding. The state agencies, especially the Anti-Corruption Commission, must now scrutinise their wealth statements and, in the event of anomalies, bring them to book. The law enforcement agencies must help the commission to bringing corrupt politicians to justice.
