Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
The Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) is using various traps to arrest dishonest government officials in a bid to curb corruption in public sector departments.
The anti-graft body also brought big fishes under its vigilance radar with a view to generating more information about the corrupt public servants, officials said.
“We have already launched drives using traps to track down corrupt government officials after the Commission received a number of allegations against them,” an ACC Director told The New Nation on Sunday requesting anonymity.
He said: “An ACC team is already on job to trap the big fishes resorting to corrupt practices in the government departments”.
The official further said the Commission has adopted the new style (trap mechanism) to curb corruption and bribery in the public sector.
“We have formed a dedicated team to conduct raid to nab the public sector’s officials after getting allegations of bribery,” he said, adding, “The Commission will play a pivotal role to put the corrupt government officials behind bars.”
It was reported that officials and employees of RAJUK, WASA, BRTA, Land Department, Dhaka City Corporations and DESA are seeking bribes randomly from the people while providing services to them.
“We don’t think that this would have been possible without the involvement of senior officials in the public departments. The ACC also brought the corrupt senior officials on vigilance radar. Once, we get any evidence against them, they may face action,” he said. The ACC director also said they have been receiving anonymous complaints from both urban and rural population, who often fall prey to corrupt government officials, after the commission started awareness drives to root out corruption.
“We have a plan to take the ACC to the doorsteps of the common people with a view to generating more information about the corrupt government officials,” he noted.
When asked, the ACC official said, “Yes, I agree that the conviction rate is not satisfactory in the ACC cases mainly because of shadow witnesses and main complainants often turn hostile in court.” Regarding corruption of ACC officials, he said, “ACC takes taught stance against its own officials. We are taking steps whenever we receive any complaint against ACC officials, irrespective of the rank. Most of the complaints we receive are against lower-rank officials only.”
The ACC Commission recently conducted at least 10 drives using traps and caught red handed some government officials while taking bribes.
During the drives, an ACC team (trap committee) nabbed three land officers in Tangail, Narsingdi and Narayanganj and a law officer of Roads and Highways in Dhaka while accepting bribe, ACC Deputy Director (public relations) Pranab Bhattacharjee told The New Nation on Sunday.
“The drives have been conducted in line with the law,” he claimed. An ACC team in a drive on Thursday nabbed a land officer from Golakandail Union Land Office in Rupganj under Narayanganj district. He was caught red handed while accepting Tk 25,000 as bribe.
ACC Director Syed Iqbal Hossain led the drive and arrested the land official. SM Sultan Ahmed, Assistant Commissioner (Land), allegedly sought Tk 5 lakh as bribe from Nasir Uddin who went to him for getting his land mutated.
ACC Deputy Director SM Rafiqul Islam later filed a graft case with the Rupganj Police station in this connection, according to Pranab Bhattacharjee.
