When journalists on December 19 drew the attention of an ACC commissioner to a report which compared the wealth statements submitted by some Awami League contestants ahead of the 10th parliamentary polls with those submitted before the ninth election, he said the Anti Corruption Commission would not launch an inquiry into how some AL contestants of the upcoming polls had amassed huge wealth in the last five years. His argument was that such a move might hamper the election.
The Daily Star had published a report titled: “The genie gave the money,” which showed that some of the AL contestants of the 10th parliamentary polls had become richer over the last five years, some rather astonishingly. The report mentioned the names of eight such contestants.
Some people are of the opinion that the disclosed wealth statements of the said MPs and their dependants don’t fully reflect their wealth. They have many more undisclosed assets.
We all know that corruption is a serious problem in Bangladesh. People of Bangladesh remember with melancholy those five years when the country topped the list of the most corrupt countries in the world.
Since then, Bangladesh has made insignificant progress in the fight against corruption. According to a Transparency International report released this year, Bangladesh ranked 136th among 177 countries.
A recent global survey by TI revealed that political corruption is the biggest scourge facing the world. As for Bangladesh, there is no comprehensive law regulating the raising of funds for political parties in a transparent way. It continues to be mostly a secret affair. It has been observed by many analysts that unless the funding process is transparent, elections will degenerate into the auctioning of nominations.
To win elections nowadays, one needs money and muscle power. If one has money, muscle can be arranged easily. This is exactly why the persons referred to in the news report used their public offices to illegally amass so much wealth in the past five years.
According to a TIB survey, the candidates who participated in the ninth parliamentary election spent about Tk30 lakhs each, which was in excess of the expenditure limit set by electoral laws. According to the survey, the highest spending by a candidate was Tk280 lakhs. Those who spend that much money for an election obviously do so with the hope of making good on that investment.
The other actors in the corruption drama are public servants and businessmen. Corruption has become pervasive in public administration in Bangladesh. This is generally attributed to poor pay and the lack of enforcement of laws.
The recent amendment of the ACC law requiring the commission to seek prior permission of the government to proceed against the public servants will encourage them to be more corrupt.
The functions of the ACC include, inter alia, conducting inquiries into the offences under the Anti-Corruption Act, 2004 and other relevant laws; instituting suo moto inquiries or inquiries on the basis of applications from aggrieved persons, and filing and conducting cases. This shows that the ACC can initiate a suo moto inquiry into the wealth allegations of the MPs over the past five years. But the ACC does not appear interested. The question that arises is: Why this apathy?
In support of his argument for not launching an inquiry into the allegations of amassing huge wealth by the said eight MPs, the ACC commissioner said: “Now, an atmosphere is prevailing for an election, and a process is on for dialogue. So, if the ACC becomes active on the issue, the situation will worsen.”
Does this tally with the ground reality? Following the boycott of the 10th national election by the BNP-led opposition alliance, the ruling alliance led by the AL has already won more than half of the parliament seats uncontested. The AL alone is likely to get two-thirds of the seats in this “voterless” and “one-sided” election.
The AL high command has ruled out the possibility of any discussion with the opposition. Since the AL-led ruling alliance is going to form the next government, the commission doesn’t want to initiate any action that will go against the interest of any high-ups of the ruling AL.
Secondly, the commission has a poor record of initiating action against the high-ups of the party/alliance in power. When the country repeatedly topped the list of the most corrupt countries during the time of the BNP-led four-party government, the commission failed to take any action against the alleged corrupt leaders of the BNP-led ruling alliance.
Hardly any change was noticed in the behaviour of the commission during the past five years of the AL-led grand alliance government. We have seen how the Padma Bridge corruption case was mishandled by the commission led by Ghulam Rahman. The result has been disastrous.
It may not be denied that during the period of the last caretaker government, the ACC sometimes acted harshly against corruption suspects. But it is also equally true that the reconstitution of the ACC by the post-1/11 caretaker government and amendments made to the Act 2004 provided some degree of dynamism and vibrancy, aiming at making corruption a punishable offence and challenging the culture of impunity.
The ACC must fulfill the people’s expectations by discharging the responsibilities entrusted to it by the charter without taking into consideration the interest of any political party, whether in power or not.
