ACC going to find out corruption in military

FE Team | Published: February 12, 2008 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is going to take up a programme to find out corruption in Bangladesh military, Helge Adam Moller, head of the visiting Parliament's Public Accounts Committee of Denmark, Monday said, quoting the ACC Chairman, reports UNB.
Moller said this while briefing the reporters about their meeting with ACC Chairman Lt Gen (retd) Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury at his office.
He said, "There are many high-ranking politicians and former ministers who have been sentenced for corruption. There are also police officers and high businessmen."
Moller said, Mogens Lykketoft, former Danish Minister for Foreign Affairs and Finance, specifically asked the chairman as a former general what does he think about military "because there could also be corruption in the military as well as police and politics." He went on, "… they (ACC) are also having a programme… to find out and to follow up corruption in the military, and that's a good and right sign."
The head of the delegation said, "The ongoing anti-graft campaign is very important for the future of the country and the upcoming elections, which should be held before the end of the year."
Moller said, the present ACC is conducting the anti-graft campaign in a much higher gear than a couple of years ago, and the reconstitution of the ACC and the Election Commission, and the move to establish Human Rights Commission are great steps before a fair and free election.
Asked if the delegation is satisfied with the transparency in the Commission's activities, he said, they are happy with what they have seen.
About the state of emergency, he said, "Our position is that the state of emergency should be as short as possible. The situation you had been in at the beginning of January last year, you had to have the caretaker government. But, what is really important is that period be as short as possible, and you get full democratic rights."
Sought comments on complaints of disregard to human rights of the detained corrupt suspects, the Danish member of parliament said, as Bangladesh is in a state of emergency, people do not have certain democratic rights.
He, however, said, if a person is put in jail, he or she should be produced before a judge very soon, and nobody should be mistreated in jail.