The nation needs true leadership so that the anti-corruption drive can go on smoothly after the emergency is lifted and an elected government takes over, Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Chairman Lt Gen (rtd) Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury said yesterday.
Without a worthy leadership, the benefits achieved so far through the commission’s work might be lost, the ACC chief said at a monthly luncheon meeting hosted by Foreign Investors’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in Dhaka.
Mashhud in his speech on “Efforts of ACC to make a corruption-free Bangladesh” said the independence of the anti-graft commission should not be only on paper, but it should reflect through the commission’s work.
The ACC boss admitted that freeing Bangladesh from corruption might not be a doable task at least for the time being. “We should decide on a more pragmatic objective, which could be to minimise corruption,” he added.
Mashhud observed that there are two ways of curbing corruption, prevention and prosecution, which are mutually inclusive. “It is also true that it is necessary to kill a few chickens to scare the monkeys,” he said.
Besides, he said, there are some means to duel with corruption which include strong political will, a set of transparent but tough laws, strong judiciary and a society willing to resist and report corruption.
The ACC chief urged the business people to expand their cooperation for fighting corruption.
Commenting on FICCI’s appeal to remove the “fear factors” that prevail in the business community, Mashhud said that it primarily depends on the agencies who make things difficult for people to do business in Bangladesh.
Instead of the ACC, other bodies such as the government can come forward with better ideas for removing these fear factors, he added.
The ACC chief said it is not the entire business sector or the people who are scared due to the anti corruption drive. “We know who are scared. Till now we have asked 200 people to submit their wealth statements, but they didn’t submit,” he said adding that none of them could be arrested and petitions have been filed to the Supreme Court or High Court against the order.
“If we lose, we will restart the whole process again,” he said.
He, however, said that the ACC has no problem if the government decides to find out any other way by which this fear will be over for once and all and people will come out clean, which they did a few days back and all know who they are.
“My point is why should such people be let off, those who had been lecturing you and me on giving taxes,” he posed the question.
FICCI President Masih Ul Karim and Vice-president Carlo Cifiello also spoke at the function.
Categories: Bangla, Bangladesh, Bangladesh Economy, Bangladesh News, Daily Bangladesh News, Economy, News
