DHAKA, 5 January 2005 — The government of Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, which created independent Anti-Corruption Commission to assume the status of Mrs. Clean, has ordered employees of the now-defunct Bureau of Anti-Corruption (BAC) not to work for the ACC until rules and regulations of the newly formed body are formulated.
The Cabinet Division in a circular on Monday formally announced 1,107 BAC staff as the government’s reserve employees in the wake of boiling conflicts between the government and the ACC. The BAC officials have been temporarily working at the anti-graft commission since Nov. 21.
The latest development is going to stall the ACC investigations into the status of 1,028 vehicles purchased for different development projects and allegations of tax dodging by a business house.
“A letter has come from the Cabinet Division regarding the status of the staff of the Bureau of Anti-Corruption,” ACC Commissioner M. Maniruzzaman Miah told newsmen Monday night, without elaborating.
The ACC chairman, its two commissioners and their personal staff, meanwhile, shifted their offices yesterday from the Segunbagicha office of the BAC to the Bureau of Statistics building at Agargaon.
They were attending their duties at the former BAC office since the ACC started functioning on Nov. 21.
