Staff Reporter :Most of the people think that the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has to achieve efficiency first to curb the country’s corruption. Their opinion about the commission is not also good. The findings of the TIB study were disclosed to the reporters in the conference room of the ACC in the capital on Sunday. It took six months to prepare the report from November 2015.TIB Trustee Board Chairperson Sultana Kamal and its Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman and Deputy Executive Director Professor Sumaiya Khair were present, among others, in the press conference. Shahzada M Akram, a researcher of TIB, read out the research paper in the conference. The findings show that the ACC has got high score in 21 indicators, including institutional legal independence and corruption prevention activities, while moderate score in 19 and low score in nine indicators.The conviction rate in graft-related cases was 37 percent in last three years, TIB said.The survey also shows that 68 percent people of the country became victims of corruption between the years of 2013 and 2015.Inadequate budget in appointing lawyers, unsatisfactory investigation and progress of the cases, faulty process of filing graft cases, investigators’ inability and low rate of execution of corruption cases are the hindrances to make the commission an independent and powerful institution. The survey, however, appreciated the ACC for its some initiatives like liberty and dignity in the law, assurance of budget, stability of the employees, good response for investigation of the officials and initiatives to curb corruption. Dr Iftekharuzzaman said the report of the survey was not bad. But the commission will have to work more to make it strong to combat corruption. “All the responsible persons in the country should work to build the ACC as an independent institution. No law should not drafted opposing the liberty of the commission,” he said. Dr Iftekharuzzaman said, “There is no example in the world that anti-corruption body has done everything alone. The constitutional bodies in the country should help the commission eliminate corruption. The success of ACC depends on transparent and neutral judgement with skilled, impartial and effective law enforcing agencies.”Sultana Kamal said the people hold the law in own hands when there is no rule of law in the society and the violation of human rights increases. The ACC has to work to secure positive supports of the people first to cultivate people’s confidence. The TIB placed 11-point recommendations to make the ACC active. Those are: To increase budget, rethinking about increasing manpower and organisational structure, to increase transparency in appointing chairman and commissioners, to mordenise the process of filing graft cases and utilisation of technology, to ensure punishment to the culprit, to take initiative to recover asset, to take long-term plan, to build powerful website, to enhance negotiation with other institutions and to cultivate confidence of the people by applying different positive measurers.
