Ensure disclosure of officials' assets

A must-do court order comes for the government to strictly enforce the legal provisions for submission and disclosure of statements on property of civil servants and their family members, on the heels of serial wealth scams.
In its directive issued Tuesday, the High Court asked the relevant bodies of government to submit a progress report with the court within three months.
According to the Rule 13(1)(2) of the Government Servants (Conduct) Rules, 1979, a government servant has to give a declaration of his or her property at the time of entering government service.
The rule reads: "Every Government servant shall, at the time of entering Government service, make a declaration to the Government through the usual channel, of all immovable and movable properties, including shares, certificates, securities, insurance policy, and jewellery having a total value of Taka 10,000 (Taka ten thousand) or more belonging to, or held by him or a member of his family.."

Further dictate of the rule is "every government servant shall submit to the government, through usual channel, an annual return of assets in the month of December showing any increase or decrease in property as shown in the declaration under sub-rule (1) or, as the case may be, the last annual return".
The High Court bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Kazi Ebadoth Hossain passed the orders after hearing a writ petition that lists recent divulging of fabulous assets of a number of serving and retired officials.
During the hearing, the court observed that corruption and money laundering stood as a big barrier to development. "We must combat it and we must stop it."
Meanwhile, the Anti-Corruption Commission wanted an account of a few of those whose huge wealth surfaced in press reports and investigations.
In a reaction Dr Iftekharuzzaman, Executive Director of the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), sys the government "doesn't have the courage" to disclose the statements of the assets owned by government officials.
"As a result, the court has to pass order for implementation of a law enacted by the government itself, which is an embarrassing situation for the government," he added while talking to the FE correspondent.
He further said, "Officials concerned are reluctant towards implementing the law as their main objective is to hide the information of wealth acquired through corruption and irregularities."
However, he said, this court order can be taken positively.
"Failure to comply with the court order will now constitute contempt of court. But still the question remains as to how much action the government will actually take to implement the law. Since there is no authority to compel high-level government officials, this court order is a positive step," observed the executive of the local chapter of the Berlin-based anti-graft watchdog.
Subir Nandi Das, a Supreme Court lawyer, filed the writ petition Monday as public-interest litigation.
The High Court also issued a rule upon the government bodies concerned to  explain as to why "purported inaction of the respondents to adopt guidelines or policy or to enact proper legislation to prevent accumulation of illegal wealth (movable or immovable) through corruption by the public servants and their family members shall not be declared illegal".
In the rule the court also wants the government to explain as to why it should not be directed to initiate immediate adequate efforts to collect statement of assets (movable and immovable) from the government servants serving in civil capacity in accordance with Rule 13(1)(2) of the Government Servants (Conduct) Rules 1979.
The bench fixed October 22 for holding hearing on the rule.
Lawyer Subir Nandi Das himself moved the petition, while Deputy Attorney- General AKM Amin Uddin Manik and Advocate AKM Fazlul Haque appeared for the state and the Anti-Corruption Commission respectively during writ hearings.
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