Daylong campaign to demand independent ACC at East West University campus |
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Photography exhibition, graffito, and signature campaign were organized by the YES group of East West University to demand an effective and independent Anti-Corruption Commission. The programme was held on 20 May 2010 at the Admin building of the university premises in Dhaka. Around 700 students and teachers visited the photography exhibition among which 200 participated in the signature campaign. They put forward strong demand for an effective and independent ACC.
The objective of the initiative was to create awareness among the youngsters about the detrimental effects of the proposal been finalized by the cabinet committee to amend the Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2004. The Vice Chancellor of East West University, Dr. Mohammed Sharif inaugurated the program as chief guest while YES Advisor and Assistant Professor of Business Administration of East West University Engr. Kamrul Hassan was present. |
To establish transparency TIB facilitates in placing information boards at different service delivery institutions at the local level. This is one of the many other social accountability tools TIB has been using at the local level. As a part of this  program an Information board regarding different services of Kumargata union, Muktagacha was placed on 30 May in the parishad premises. Under the aegis os CCC Muktagachha the school authority of Garaikuti govt. Primary School installed an information board about the service of the school on 6 May. Besides, A Citizen Charter was placed in Muktagacha Health Complex on 9 May, 2010. |
| YES A co-ordination meeting with CCC, Swajan and YES group was organized by CCC Muktagacha. CCC convener prof. Abdus Sobur presided the meeting. Well-coming speech was delivered by CCC member Principal Shapan kumar Das. Joint Convener Mrs. Rumi Das presented annual work plan and joint convener Md. Akthruzzaman shared achievements and failures of CCC Myktagachha in last year. On behalf of YES group, YES co-ordinator Kapil Shaha delivered a speech, YES member Shawon Koyeri presented annual work plan and YES member Nadira Khanom Tuli presented a report on union based AI-desk activities. Convener of Swajan Prof. Ayub Khan also spoke. Executive Director of TIB Dr. Iftekharuzzaman made an elongated discussion about the responsibility of CCC, Swajan and YES to carry forward the anti-corruption movement more effectively. He also answered all questions raised by the participants. There was a Cultural event performed by CCC, Swajan and YES and it was moderated by Mahbubul Alam, CCC member of Muktagachha. |
On 13 May, CCC Muktagacha organized an opinion sharing meeting in 4, Kumargata union. The Chairman as well as the members of the union parishad and the local people exchanged their views. In the meeting, a service monitoring committee of union was formed having 36 members which was presided by the chairman of the union parishad Md. Anisur Rahman Atul. Along with this the integrity pledge issue was discussed in detail by CCC convener prof. Abdus Sabur and CCC member Ekhlasur Rahman Jewel. The meeting was moderated by Mrs. Rumi Das, joint convener of CCC Muktagacha. |
| Want independent and effective anti-corruption commission Citizens raising voice across the country |
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Some recent proposals finalized by the cabinet committee to amend the ACC act, 2004 gravely concerned TIB about the future of ACC. The set of amendments to the Anti-corruption Act approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of your Excellency's Government on 26 April 2010 will, if adopted in the Parliament, significantly curtail the independence and effectiveness of the ACC. This will also mark a failure of the Government to meet the specific election pledge to effectively control corruption. After issuing repeated press releases in March, A press conference was held on 2 May where an 18 point policy brief on ACC was placed. Along with that TIB carried out a nation-wide campaign during May. A letter with a set of policy recommendations was sent to the members of the parliament including the Prime Minister. A Human chain was organized on 18 May, 2010 in front of National Press Club, Dhaka. Opinion in favor of this campaign was also sought through an online petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/acc2010/petition.html and short-code messaging, writing DUDAK at 2626, from all cell phone operators. Some 170 thousand people of Banglades joined TIB to urge upon the government to consider the following points:
1. Corruption in all sectors - political, administrative, corporate, NGOs, and individual - should be treated on equal footing and must be within the jurisdiction of the ACC. Exclusion of any particular sector, especially the public service will be discriminatory and counter-productive to the objective of making corruption a punishable offence. We therefore urge upon the Government to ensure that corruption in the public service remains within the jurisdiction of the ACC with no need for prior permission. Offences committed in good faith, if any, should be determined in the Court of Law, not through any blanket waiver;
2. The proposal to make the Commission accountable to the President would not meet the objective of accountability. The ACC should rather be made accountable to a Judicial Committee of the Supreme Court. Alternately, the ACC could be reportable to a Parliamentary Committee composed of one member each of all parties represented in the Parliament, provided that such members are known for highest levels of credibility, integrity and honesty; 3. The proposal to take away the authority of the ACC to appoint its Secretary, and to vest it upon the Government will significantly curtail the Commission's operational independence and establish more direct control upon it. We, therefore appeal that the Commission must retain its authority to appoint the Secretary. 4. The proposal to introduce a new clause to provide for upto five years imprisonment for ill-motivated cases will work as a deterrent against taking action against corrupt activity. In view of the fact that such offences are in any case subject to legal action under conventional law, introduction of a specific provision in case of the ACC will only damage the prospect of making corruption a punishable offence. 5. We also appeal to you that true to the basic principle of participatory democracy the proposed amendments be opened to public information, debate and feedback before adopting in the Parliament. All 36 CCCs, formed under the aegis of TIB, organized human chains formed with the citizens of Bangladesh in favor of these above points during various dates on May. In association with other NGOs (such as SUJAN, BLUST), journalists, local leaders, educationalists and common people joined the CCC conveners, members, YES friends and YES members of the respective areas in organizing the chains in front of important places like Press Club, Central Shahid Minar, DC Office, Upazilla Parishad and at different bus stands. At the same time different CCCs distributed leaflets, sent memorandums and issued press releases. Besides, mass signature collection campaign was carried out at all TIB intervened areas and at the Capital where members of the CCC and YES played a key role. TIB also undertook a media campaign in support of ACC and participated in a roundtable organized by Prothom Alo and promoted similar messages in TV talk shows in Channel I, RTV, ABC and BBC radios. |
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| Citizens’ expectation towards electoral nomination |
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| CCC Kishoreganj and CCC Madhupur respectively on 10 May and 13 May arranged a workshop titled ‘Citizens’ expectation on electoral nomination’ in association with Transparency International Bangladesh. These two are part of the series of workshops being held at all seven divisions. The aim of these workshops is to reduce the gaps between voters, political parties as well as elected representatives. It also aims at finding the way of ensuring the nomination according to the expectation of voters. Usually the opinions of the central and higher levels are prioritized in election nomination process of Bangladesh. The leaders from grass-root level get lesser opportunity to take part. The results of the workshops show that there was hardly any participation of common people in the nomination process of the political parties in the last general election, although some parties selected their candidates based on grass-root recommendation. As a result, no reflection of the expectation of mass-people was found. The discussants in the workshop recommended for increasing the participation of common people in nomination process. To earn a stable and desirable change at nomination process in both national and local level, it is necessary to prioritize the opinion of mass people and it is stated in the working paper, presented in the workshop. Dr. Meer Farhadul Alam Moni, Upazila vice chairman and member of CCC Madhupur, delivered inaugural speech. Maria Chiron, joint convener of CCC presided over the meeting while Dr. Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of TIB was the moderator. In the workshop at Kishoreganj, inaugural speech was delivered by CCC Convener Advocate Maya Bhoumik. Political leaders from local level, journalists, professionals, teachers and general people including the working class took part in the brainstorm session in different groups. Their insightful opinions were taken to the light to know the way to increase the involvement of common people in nomination process. |
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World Press Freedom Day observed Technical assistance in health initiative  Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) participated in the gender fair held during 12 -13 May in the Institute of Diploma Engineers, Kakrail, Dhaka. The fair was organized by Democracy Watch in collaboration with Ain O Salish Kendro, Department of Women and Gender Studies - DU, WARBE Development, Nari Maitree, ICDDR,B, IOM, RMMRU, NGO Forum, BIILS and TIB. The fair was inaugurated by Ms. Meher Afroz Chumki, parliamentary standing committee chairperson for the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs. Along with the fair, two seminars, one sharing meeting and a cultural programme were held. TIB’s YES members captivated the audience with their choreography on the TIB theme song “Wake up people…”.  The objective of the fair was to promote gender sensitivity through sharing of communication materials of different organizations working towards gender equality, human rights and good governance and drawing the attention of policy makers, civil society, media, development partners and other concerned groups regarding the pressing issues involved. |