TIB's revised working paper on the structure of the proposed Bangladesh Anti-Corruption Commission- press coverage 2

The Financial Express, 23 September 2002

Transparency International (TI) Bangladesh has suggested immediate formation of an independent anti-corruption commission to check financial mismanagement and corruption, which have taken an endemic turn causing losses of a huge amount of money to the government exchequer every year.

"The country has suffered a financial loss of Tk 112.56 billion due to corruption in 2001. If effective steps are not taken to curb corruption, the situation would go out of control", said the TI in a report placed at the concluding session of its two-day workshop held at the CIRDAP auditorium Sunday.

Mozaffar Ahmed placed a structure for the proposed anti-corruption commission and said that the chairman of this commission should be nominated by the Constitutional Council (CC) and appointed by the President. He said formation of such a commission needs amendment to the constitution because it is not possible to constitute the proposed Constitutional Council under the existing constitutional provision.

The proposed structure of the commission has four chapters featuring all aspects of the commission ranging from appointment of the chairman and members, their qualification, official status, tenure of the service, salaries, function of the commission and its legal authority.

The CC would be a five-member body comprising two representatives nominated by the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition, the Chief Justice and two individuals nominated by each of the three.

The TI in its proposed structure said the chairman and members of the commission must have legal and administrative expertise and competence and their age should not be less than 50 years. Their personal integrity and reputation should be evaluated before giving them appointment to the commission, it said.

The tenure of the chairman and members will be five years and non- renewable, it said adding that the chairman would enjoy facilities including salary equivalent to judges of Appellate Division while members to High Court Division of the Supreme Court.

About legal authority, it said the commission should be given enough power so that it could give maximum punishment to elected representatives, senior officials and law enforcing officials.

In case of differences of opinion between the government and the commission, the matter should be sent to the court for a decision. To oversee the activities of the commission, the CC will form a three- member team, which will investigate allegations of corruption from within the commission.

Chairman of the TI Khan Sarwar Murshid presided over the workshop while chief of the 1996 caretaker government Justice Habibur Rahman, Mujibur Rahman, Rashed Khan Menon, Hasanul Haq Inu, former heads of the Bureau of Anti-Corruption Badiuzzaman and Habibur Rahman, Abdul Matin Khasru, Khushi Kabir, Faruq Khan, Atiur Rahman and Enayetullah Khan, among others, addressed it.

FE Report