The Anti-Corruption Commission reform commission has recommended recognising the ACC as a constitutional body instead of a statuary one and reducing political and bureaucratic influences to make it a dynamic agency.
The reform commission鈥檚 recommendations also include permanently stopping the scope for legalising money earned illegally, increasing the posts of commissioners from three to five, doubling salaries of officials and employees of the ACC.
Iftekharuzzaman, head of the ACC Reform Commission, on Wednesday submitted the commission鈥檚 report with 47 recommendations to chief adviser Muhammad Yunus at the latter鈥檚 office in Dhaka.
鈥榃e have proposed 47 recommendations categorised into short-, medium-, and long-term measures to make the ACC more dynamic,鈥� said Iftekharuzzaman after submitting the report.
The commission recommended increasing the posts of commissioners with compulsory female participation, and suggested a four-year tenure instead of the five-year one for commissioner.
Any person with at least 15 years of experience in law, education, administration, judiciary, law enforcement, financial institutions, accounting, and auditing professions, or in a government or private institution engaged in governance or anti-graft activities, will be eligible to become a commissioner, it said.
Suggesting for changes in the ACC scrutinising cell, it also recommended not keeping the same official for a long time at the cell and not including more than one officer from officers on deputation.
The commission also said Section 32A of the ACC Act-2004 should be abolished, as the section states that the ACC will have to obtain prior approval from the government if it files a case against government employee.
It recommended increasing the number of director general from eight to 12.
However, if an officer in government service is considered eligible for the advertised post, he or she can get a contractual appointment as the secretary of the ACC by taking leave from the job.
All appointments to the posts of director general and director except for the DG and director appointed on deputation, should be made through a competitive and open process through advertisement.
However, 60 per cent of the posts of DG and 75 per cent of the posts of director will be reserved for internal candidates of the ACC who meet the advertised eligibility criteria.
Section 54(2) of the Anti-Corruption Commission (Employees) Service Rules, 2008, should be abolished, as it states that the competent authority can remove any employee of the ACC without assigning any reason by giving 90 days鈥� notice or salary.
The ACC should immediately form a high-powered task force in collaboration with various investigation or intelligence agencies to identify corrupt officers and employees and dismiss them from service and take legal action.