The Election Commission has yet to make a decision on clearing its position over serving the wealth statements of two former ministers, a state minister, and three lawmakers to the Anti-Corruption Commission, a senior official has said.
He said the commission had not decided on the issue as yet, but had drafted a letter where it said it could not provide the certified copies of wealth statements since none of them were available at the EC headquarters.
“After getting approval from commission meeting, we will write to the ACC stating our inability to provide them the certified copies,” he said.
The ACC served letters to Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmed on January 23, seeking certified copies of affidavits that six ruling party candidates had submitted before the 9th and 10th parliamentary elections. All of them are now on the ACC’s radar.
The six are: former Health Minister AFM Ruhal Haq, former State Minister for Housing and Public Works Abdul Mannan Khan, former State Minister for Water Resources Mahbubur Rahman, and lawmakers Abdur Rahman Badi from Cox’s Bazar, Aslamul Haque from Dhaka and Abdul Jabbar from Satkhira.
The ACC is also looking to trace the reasons behind the astronomical rise in wealth of Awami League lawmaker Enamul Haque from Rajshahi. However, the graft buster has not sought the copy of his wealth statement from the EC.
On January 22, the ACC assigned seven officials to inquire into the phenomenal rise in wealth and assets of two former ministers, a state minister and four lawmakers.
The letter that the EC has drafted reads that all the authorised copies of the affidavits are currently with the respective returning offices now and therefore EC cannot support ACC with the copies. Instead, it will request ACC to collect the copies from returning offices concerned or collect the wealth statements by downloading them from the EC website.
EC Secretary Dr Muhammad Sadiq told the Dhaka Tribune they were waiting for the commission’s decision regarding the issue.
According to an analysis by Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik, the wealth statements of the candidates of the last parliamentary election had seen an increase of up to 32,985% in their income.
According to the affidavits submitted to the EC, the total incomes of ministers increased by 243% and their wealth by 247%, while the total income of state ministers increased by 464% and wealth 459%.
