Noman Mosharef :
Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) received more than 4.0 million calls of allegations in its hotline service “106” in the last three years.
But the anti-graft watchdog investigated only more than two hundred complaints during the period.
The ACC officials said, most of allegation what they got were out of their jurisdiction. So, it was not possible to investigate all the complaints.
According to the ACC website, the commission got 75 thousand phone calls on the first day of launching the hotline service in 2017.
ACC got 17,953 calls of allegations in its hotline service in 2017 from various corners of the society. Of these, 937 were selected for investigation and 377 were sent to relevant institutions for taking necessary actions.
Within three years more than 42 lakh people called the ACC’s hotline number. From these huge allegations ACC has recorded 2.15 lakh complaints only. From the recorded complaints, investigations were started for 207 allegations whereas 81 cases started this year.
Arrests were made in 14 complaints and on seven cases suspects were caught red handed.
ACC Deputy Director Masudur Rahman said, about 1001 drives have been conducted after getting complaints in 2019. And this year till November almost 442 drives were seen. ACC Chairman Iqbal Mahmud told media that the hotline number was launched for not to suppress corruption but to prevent it also.
Besides, ACC filed case and submit chargesheet after getting complaints in its hotline number, he added.
He also mentioned ‘Titas scam’ for an example.
Iqbal Mahmood admits that they got a lot of allegation over phone calls, emails and written format adding that the Commission has limitations for taking actions.
A provision of the Anti-Corruption Commission law, the government’s permission must be obtained before filing graft cases against public servants while discharging duties.
After the ACC Act was amended in 2013, the commission sent most of the cases over fraud or forgery to the police, apart from those filed against government employees.
Also, the ACC was left with the power to investigate only one offence – corruption and bribery – among the 27 related offences, after the Money Laundering Prevention Act was amended in 2015. Three other bodies were empowered to investigate the rest of the offences.
“People saw hope in their efforts to end the corruption issue by lodging complaints through the hotline. However, it has not materialised much,” said TIB Executive Director Dr. Iftekharuzzaman.
He said a huge phone calls to ACC’s hotline proved that people are aware about corruption and they want to wash out it from the society. “It is true that all complaints are not under ACC’s jurisdiction, but it is needed to a proper clarification by ACC of all allegations received over hotline number.”
Dr. Iftekharuzzaman also said that the ACC takes action against some low-profile or mid-level officials, but not against the big shots or influential people.
