DHAKA, 23 November 2004 — Bangladesh has formed a three-member Anti-Corruption Commission with Justice Sultan Hossain Khan, a former high court judge, as its chairman. The new commission replaces the Bureau of Anti Corruption (BAC) that was dissolved.
The commission will investigate all corruption charges, and cases will be tried in special corruption courts under existing criminal laws, a government statement said yesterday.
Berlin-based anti-corruption group Transparency International has ranked Bangladesh one of the world’s most corrupt countries.
The project “is a big step forward in our efforts to curb corruption in every field,” Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Moudud Ahmed told reporters. “The commission will work independently without any interference from the government.”
Anti-corruption activists welcomed the commission’s launch, but expressed some reservations. “The selection of the commission’s members could have been better,” said Muzaffar Ahmed, a member of the Bangladesh chapter of the Transparency International. “But I still believe the commission will prove its credibility.”
“When Sultan Hossain Khan was the chief election commissioner, the performance of the commission was not great,” the Daily Star newspaper quoted Ahmad as saying. “The government has made these appointments under donor pressure,” he added.
The newspaper said that the Bangladesh government appeared to have finally agreed to go to Berlin to discuss Transparency International’s findings after it lost out on $300 million of US aid from the president’s Millennium Development Fund.
“Engagement with TI as to... what steps must be taken by Bangladesh to combat corruption is the statesmanlike and mature thing to do,” the paper added in an editorial.
The formation of the Independent Anti-Corruption Commission fulfils an election pledge by the present Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led coalition government. International anti-graft groups have routinely ranked Bangladesh as one of the world’s most corrupt nations. Bangladesh business leaders have called for the government to wipe out corruption by 2010, saying it is eroding the cash-hungry country’s economy.
