Scaring people in the name of mitigating corruption not our objective: ACC chief

FE Team | Published: August 27, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

FE Report
Freeing Bangladesh from corruption may not be possible at least for the time being, but it can be minimised, Chairman of Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury said Sunday.
"We can make more pragmatic move to minimise corruption," the ACC chief said while speaking as the guest of honour at a luncheon meeting titled, "Efforts of ACC to make a corruption-free Bangladesh" at a city hotel.
Addressing the meeting, organised by the Foreign Investors' Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), the ACC chairman said corruption may be a fact of life but it should not be allowed to be a way of life.
There are two ways of combating corruption -- prevention and prosecutions, he said adding: "It is necessary to kill few chickens to scare the monkeys."
A number of key aspects like strong political will, transparent but tough laws, and a well-motivated society will resist corruption, Hasan Mashhud figured out.
About the ACC's role after lifting of the emergency and during the regime of next elected political government the ACC chief said the commission must be allowed to function independently.
"Otherwise, all the good works of the commission, so far achieved. may go in vein," he cautioned.
Speaking on the occasion the FICCI President Masih Ul Karim said that the prevailing fear factors should be removed from the businessmen to avoid its adverse impact on the economy.
Responding to the FICCI president the ACC chief said removing fear factors should primarily depend on those agencies that really make things difficult for people for doing businesses in Bangladesh.
He noted that it is not the whole business community or the whole section of people, who are scared. "We know who are scared," he said.
Mashhud, however, said that he does not have any problem if the government decides to find some means by which this fear factor can be overcome and let people come out clean.
The ACC top brass, however, assured the business community that his commission would not scare anyone for nothing.
Referring to the job of the ACC, Mashhud said scaring people in the name of mitigating corruption is not the objective of the commission.
About the ACC's relation with the National Coordination Committee (NCC) on serious crime and corruption, the commission chairman said the NCC is only for the much part of the emergency period.
The ACC is taking the advantage of the NCC resources, he added.
British High Commissioner Anwar Chowdhury, Australian High Commissioner Douglas Foskett, Canadian High Commissioner Barbara Richardson and US Charge de Affairs Geeta Pasi were among others present at the FICCI's luncheon meeting.