Mashhud happy with ACC's pace of works

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Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Chairman Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury Monday expressed satisfaction over the pace of works being carried out by the Commission, and expressed hope that the cases would go to the court in due time, reports UNB.
"We're happy…There is the pace of work as we expected. We hope we'll be able to get the job done quickly, and take the cases to the court at the right time," he told the reporters on his way out of the office.
The ACC chairman, however, observed that it might happen that the Commission finished its part of task, but the job at the other end (court) is not done. "The authorities will decide what to do in this regard. The number of courts may be increased."
About the submission of wealth statements by 21 corrupt suspects, summoned by the anti-graft body, he said, all of them, excepting one, have provided the statements. "Tomorrow is the last date, and we hope the remaining person will also submit his wealth statement. After that inquiries will get underway about the 21 individuals."
On his meeting with the representatives from some donor countries and agencies, Mashhud said, those who are interested to help came, and the Commission could finalise the proposals they put forward.
Asked if the donors would provide any cash assistance and what would be the preconditions of providing assistance, he said, "There will be no precondition for their assistance, and there will be no cash assistance."
He said, they (the donors) would mainly assist in the fields of training, IT and investigations.
The ACC chairman said, a number of trainers having the experience in the perspective of this sub-continent would be brought from abroad to train the ACC officials to enhance their skills on investigation.
About the IT, he said, there would be office automation on a large scale, which would be done in phases. "This office will be different from other ones. There will be a networking. It's a big dream…Hopefully, we'll be able to materialise it."
Emerging from the meeting with the ACC chairman, Ambassador of Denmark Einar H Jensen, on behalf of others, told the reporters that they discussed about their supports for investigations, prosecution, strengthening IT, and case management.
"We're talking about some possible support for investigation, some possible support for prosecution and some support for IT and case management," he said.
Australian High Commissioner Douglas Foskett, World Bank Country Director Zhu Xian, deputy head of Dutch mission Fritz Meijndeft, task manager for good governance project of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Gambhir Bhatta and head of governance of ADB Firoj Ahmed were, among others, present on the occasion.