The work of Anti-corruption Bureau which functions under the supervision of the Prime Minister's Office is coming under increasing scrutiny. And why not? For one thing, successive governments have utilised it to rake up a plethora of corruption cases against one another without bringing these to any logical conclusion. For the other, interest in the politically high profile cases has been disproportionately larger than that in pure and simple corruption related complaints that far outnumber the former variety. On balance therefore, a vast majority of corruption complaints go unheeded. Such a scenario naturally raises a number of questions about the bureau's performance.

Findings of a survey put together in a report recently released by Transparency International, Bangladesh (TIB) portray a dismal picture of the anti-corruption bureau's track-record. The average rate of 'settlement' of complaints is 41 per cent and that of pending ones 59 per cent. Only four per cent of the accused are convicted, 5.2 per cent acquitted and the remainder 90.8 per cent of cases hang fire for years together. Many cases are ruined through transfer of investigating officers, lack of witnesses and evidence, administrative interruptions and political or VIP influence-peddling.

Admittedly, while the BAC has to do the bidding of the government of the day and to that extent its neutrality is open to question, the bureau has had professional weaknesses of its own that should not be overlooked either. Much of its operational ineffectiveness stems from poor planning, negligence of officers at the inquiry and investigation stages which culminate in weak charge-sheeting and flawed prosecution. As it is, reputed lawyers are not always found for prosecution purposes.
There is no denying the need for imparting specialised legal training to BAC officials in a order that the cases they put up are fool-proof in legalistic terms.

Unsurprisingly, delay in obtaining permission from higher authority caused deadlock in 77 per cent of the corruption cases while apparently permission to start cases against ministers and MPs of outgoing governments, both in the past and contemporaneously, came in a jiffy, so to speak. Whatever the rapidity in the issuance of green signals to the BAC for starting such proceedings, 151 cases against VIPs, including ministers, MPs and high government officials, have been pending for eight years.

All these make out a very strong case for an independent anti-corruption commission as part and parcel of a transparent and accountable democratic system. The fact that we have not had it so far is baffling, to say the least. The USA and India have it and that makes a whole lot of difference in the way they handle their corruption cases compared with how we have been doing. We tend to forget that mishandled or miscarried cases have a way of perpetuating corruption.

We have seen how at the national level a change of guard is invariably followed an expression of resolve to clean up the old mess, end corruption, so on and so forth. Important decisions will also be taken initially in this behalf but somewhere down the line the incumbent will beat a retreat. Our hope is that the BNP will not flinch from the commitments it has made to the nation which they are also in the best position to implement because of the electoral mandate they enjoy. BNP having adopted an anti-corruption plank in its election manifesto, is obligated to live up to it. In order to rise to the occasion it has to avoid treading the beaten track of ticking off its important pledges towards the end of its tenure and feigning that these have been implemented after all. As for constituting an independent anti-corruption commission this approach cannot do.

Such a commission will have to be set up with sufficient time in hand so that it is properly nurtured, developed and matured to be able to handle its writ effectively. Just flagging it off won't do; BNB has to make sure the proposed independent anti-corruption body has acquired an institutional shape within its term of office.

Editorial

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