TIB concerns over handing full power to ACC Secretary

Staff Reporter :
Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has expressed its deep concern for handing over the power of appointment and transfer of officers engaged in investigation and inquiry of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to the Secretary.
TIB has called for the withdrawal of this order, saying that this has created a grave threat of undermining the ACC’s powers.
 TIB beliefs that the Commission to withdraw its efforts to finalize the process of conversion into a government institution like the now defunct Bureau Anti-Corruption (BAC), TIB said in a statement issued on Saturday.
Earlier on December 18, 2022, in the Office of Delegation of Administrative and Financial Power (Administrative and Financial Power) Order issued by the ACC Secretary saying that the power of appointment and transfer of Deputy Director and Assistant Director rank officers engaged in investigation and inquiry has been removed from the hands of the ACC Chairman and Commissioners and vested in the hands of the Secretary.
TIB Executive Director Dr. Iftekharuzzaman in a statement said, “According to the relevant law, the executive power of the ACC is entrusted with the Chairman and the Commissioners under his leadership, in relation to the main mandate of this institution, this important decision of handing over the said executive power to the Secretary was made in the process, what was the rationale? How much consideration has been given to the threat of diminishing the power of the commission? It is natural to ask whether the decision was taken consciously by the commission, or is it a sinister attempt to transform this important body, which has been called a ‘toothless tiger’ for a long time, into reality. It is important to get a logical answer to these questions, especially why the commission decided to leave some important powers in the hands of the Secretary and the bureaucracy. That too needs clarification.”
According to the information published in the media, as the reason for this decision, the explanantion given by the ACC of following the example of various government is indicative of the failure to understand that the ACC is not a government institution, he observed.
Terming the decision as ‘suicidal’, Dr. Iftekharuzzaman said that not only the transfer and appointment of Deputy Director and Assistant Director level officials, but all the powers such as permanent and regularization of the employment of ACC investigating officers, current duties, allowances and leave, pension, PRL and award in case of conviction etc. have been entrusted with the bureaucracy. Virtually the ACC was now completely transformed into the former Bureau with nothing left.
The TIB Executive Director expressed his disappointment and said, “According to the decision number four of paragraph ‘Cha’ of this order, the “full power” to implement all the powers under section 16 of the ACC Act has been handed over to the Secretary, according to Article 3(2) of the ACC Act, the ACC is independent. It is nothing but the final nail in the coffin of public expectations of being an impartial institution.”
TIB considers the said office order as a depressing example of institutionalization of trampling on the Prime Minister’s declaration of zero tolerance against corruption and calls for its immediate withdrawal.