Probing corruption in a maze of 'wealth statements'

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Shamsul Huq Zahid brThe Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) has been in the national limelight for its actions against high-profile political figures, including two leading ladies of Bangladesh politics- Khaleda Zia of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Sheikh Hasina of Awami League (AL). brNotwithstanding the fact that a good number of prominent politicians facing corruption charges are now out of prison under orders either from the higher courts or the government, the ACC has done something inconceivable in Bangladesh. It has made many powerful and influential individuals to stand in the dock as suspects in financial wrong-doings. It is a different issue whether the process thereof has been foolproof or not. brBut the mighty Commission is in a very difficult -- and, perhaps, baffling -- situation in accomplishing in its task of combating institutional corruption and finding out corrupt elements among 1.2 million public servants. brThe current caretaker government asked its officials and employees to submit their wealth statements by December 31, 2007. But the deadline was extended by two months due to poor response from the public servants. brThe reason behind the move to secure wealth statements is to find out corrupt elements among the public servants. But that objective cannot be achieved without carrying out thorough investigations into wealth statements submitted by each and every public servant. The onus of investigation lies with the ACC. brBut the ACC does not have even a fraction of manpower and logistics needed to dig into wealth statements of such a large number of government servants. Many high profile corruption suspects have been granted bails by the higher courts for the ACC's failure to frame charges against them within the period stipulated under the Emergency Powers Rules (EPR). Manpower shortage is thought to be one of the reasons for the unwanted delay. brSo, under the circumstances, the Commission has sought advice from the cabinet division as to how to investigate the wealth statements of the public servants. Colonel Hanif Iqbal, Director General (administration) of the ACC, while briefing the newsmen last Monday said the Commission is considering ways to involve the departments concerned in its task of dealing with the statements. brIf the ACC cannot investigate into the wealth statements on its own and involves the government agencies in the task of looking into the same, one can guess the outcome well. And if the ACC decides to employ its own manpower in the investigation, it might take some years to complete the job. brBut had the past governments enforced the rule-the Government Employees (Conduct) Rules, 1979 that requires every government employee to submit, from the date of joining to the date of retirement from service, a wealth statement to the relevant authority every five years-- the ACC would not have faced so much of problem in dealing with the issue. brThe framers of the rule concerned had allocated five years for carrying out investigations into the wealth statements. The task of updating an ongoing process is much easier than digging into the past. brSo, the ACC, instead of involving the relevant ministries and departments in the issue of wealth statements, should try to do it alone over a period next five years. And to make things easy, it should, in the first place, screen out some employees and officials, who are not in positions to indulge into financial irregularities, with a view to bringing down the number of statements to a manageable level. brLaxity in the enforcement of rules relevant to government employees has been rampant since independence of the country. This not only has encouraged the public servants to become corrupt but also made them bold enough to toe party lines, leading to a serious deterioration in the quality of public service. The then government of 1979 framed rules to ensure discipline among government servants. But its successors overlooked the need for enforcement of those rules. What is worse is that the political governments since 1991 tried to create their own coteries in the administration. brAs far as combating corruption at the institutional level, the ACC has planned to meet heads and other high officials of different ministries and departments to know about the routes of corruption and officials from which level get involved into it. As part of that process, the Commission has a schedule to meet with the officials of the land ministry in the second week of next month and with the health ministry in the following week. Similar meetings will be held with the ministry of communication ministry and the local government division in November next. brThe ministries with which the ACC will be meeting are known for their high level of corruption, the land ministry and the departments under it being at the top. brThe idea of getting to know how corruption is taking place from the people manning the highly corruption-ridden ministries and departments appears to be quite a novel one. But it is unlikely to pay any dividend. brInstead of trying to secure information from this kind of meeting, the ACC is supposed to rely more on its intelligence work to know details about corruption and corrupt officials in any public agency. brThere is no denying that corruption by high-profile politicians and businessmen does hurt the national economy. But its impact is not felt that much at the individual level. Actually, a common man feels aggrieved when public servants take bribe in exchange for services the latter is supposed to deliver free of cost. The ACC, seemingly, is not prepared at the moment to address that particular issue. brzahidfe@yahoo.combr