ACC under ruling party influence, says TIB

The Anti-Corruption Commission is influenced by the ruling party as it is soft to its politicians, according to a research report conducted by the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB).

The report was unveiled at a press conference at the TIB office in the capital on Tuesday.

"The ACC is influenced by the ruling party directly or indirectly. The anti-graft national body is soft to politicians belonging to the ruling party. It was found in follow-up research about the performance of ACC conducted in 2016-2019," said TIB executive director Dr. Iftekharuzzaman.

Shahzada M Akram, senior program manager of Research and Policy of TIB and its manager Shammi Laila Islam read out the research findings at the press conference.

"We’ve noticed some progress in the activities of ACC during the period but there’s no progress in the overall perspective," Iftekharuzzaman told reporters.  

"ACC interrogated several ruling party MPs on corruption charges but there’s no visible punishment against them," he added.

Iftekharuzzaman said the independent of ACC is limited to papers but not in practice.

"The provision of the requirement of prior government permission in filing cases against public officials must be repealed as it is unconstitutional," he said.

TIB submitted a total of 16 recommendations to improve the ACC performance.