ACC set to expand its operation to 64 dists

Ismail Hossain
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is set to expand its activities to all 64 districts from present 22 districts.
There will be 10 regional offices of the ACC to supervise district offices across the country.
In a bid to do so, the Commission is going to double its manpower from current 1,273-manned organogram. The new organogram will provide for almost double of the current workforce, according to a highly-placed source.
A committee, headed by ACC Director General Abu Hena Mostafa Kamal, is going to submit the new organogram within this week.
Earlier this year, the ACC formed a three- member committee to finalise the organogram. The two other members of the committee are ACC directors Golam Yahia and Niru Shamsun Nahar.
Currently, the ACC has one chairman, two commissioners, six director generals, 19 directors and 81 deputy directors. There will not be any change in top three tiers of the anti-corruption watchdog.
There will be at least 10 new directors for new regional offices. The regional offices will cover former greater districts and divisions. These offices will coordinate and supervise the activities of district offices.
According to ACC source, new 42 posts of deputy directors will be created for the new district offices. There will also be a number of new posts such as medical officer, welfare officer etc.
The source said the proposed organogram will be finalised at the ACC board meeting and sent to the cabinet division in a day or two for approval after its submission.
The present organogram was approved on June 06, 2006 after the Commission was formed in 2004.
The ACC was set up through a law which came into force on May 9, 2004. Previously, it was the Bureau of Anti-Corruption (BAC).
Although initially, it could not make the desired impact, immediately after its reconstitution in February 2007 the ACC began working with renewed vigour, duly acceding to the UN Convention against Corruption that was adopted by the General Assembly on October 31, 2003.
A director of the ACC told the FE, the activities of the Commission have expanded much, but it is not enough to check unabated corruption across the country.
He hoped, the ACC will have new offices in all the 64 districts from the beginning of next financial year.
Contacted, Advisor to the former caretaker government M Hafizuddin Khan told the FE, the ACC does not need to cover all the 64 districts now.
He said the Commission has been failing to create an environment of fear for the corrupt with the existing manpower.
“What will they do with doubled manpower, I don’t understand?” he wondered.
M Hafizuddin Khan, also former Comptroller and Auditor General, said the ACC needs to increase its efficiency.
Admitting the fact that the ACC needs more manpower, he said it has a huge number of pending corruption cases, but more manpower will not help fulfill the objective if the anti-corruption watchdog runs in the way it has been running.
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