ACC's 'hotline 106' gains immense popularity

The 'hotline 106' of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to receive graft complaints over phone has gained immense popularity among the citizens though a significant number of allegations were out of the commission's jurisdiction.
Sources at the ACC said mainly due to unawareness, people are calling to the hotline number to submit complaints which are not under the commission's authority to investigate.
The anti-graft watchdog has got over 209,000 calls on the hotline till date since after its initiation on July 26 this year, of which the call centre operators managed to receive around 15,000 calls.
However, 500 complaints were sent to the ACC's inquiry and investigation department marking 'serious graft incidents' of which only 35 are currently under investigation, said ACC Public Relations Officer Pranab Kumar Bhattacharjee.
Besides, around 40 complaints were forwarded to the respective ministries for taking immediate action, he added.
An ACC official involved in the hotline project said call centre operators mostly received complaints related to irregularities in assistant commissioner (land) offices, local government offices, and health and education sectors.
Talking to the FE, local government expert, Professor Tofail Ahmed said a huge number of calls by the citizens to the ACC hotline in such a short time indicates how much exploited they are due to pervasive corruption.
However, a significant number of complaints received by the ACC call centre are out of the commission's jurisdiction as people do not know where they should submit particular types of complaints.
People have countless complains to share, but they have no place to go; as a consequence, they are not getting any remedies, he said, adding, "That's why people are calling to the ACC hotline no matter what irregularities they face."
Mr Ahmed, also an executive member of Sushashoner Jonno Nagorik (Sujan), a civil society platform for good governance, said most of the complaints to the ACC hotline are land and home ministry-related.
"So, the respective ministries can also commence such call centres to resolve people's allegations like the commission," he added.
He also stressed the need for carrying out campaign programmes for ACC Hotline 106 to popularise its activities and making effective the national Grievance Redress System (GRS) under Cabinet Division of the government.
Currently, the ACC call centre is only operating in workdays within office hours, but the commission has a plan to expand its activities after office hours and even in public holidays in future, said ACC Deputy Director Md Samiul Masud, who is working on policies for the 'hotline' project.
He said five people are dedicatedly working per shift to receive calls from the complainants while the number might be increased in the future.
In the meantime, ACC has made a TV commercial as part of its anti-corruption campaign starring cricketer Shakib Al-Hasan to make people aware of the ACC's hotline and the complaints that it would take into account.
The hotline number remains open during office hours every day excluding holidays and the complainants have been enjoying toll-free call to the number from any telecom operator.
Before the hotline was opened, people could make only written complaints or via email. According to the ACC Annual Report-2016, the commission received 12,990 complaints last year of which 1,007 were taken into consideration for investigation.

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