DHAKA: The government of Bangladesh and its recently created Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) seem to have been competing with each other as to who can make a bigger mess.

The commission, a three-member body headed by Justice Sultan Hossain Khan, an octogenarian former judge of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, came into existence on November 21 last year.

Professor M Maniruzzaman Miah, a former vice-chancellor of Dhaka University, and Maniruddin Ahmed, a former chairman of the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation, were made commissioners of the body.

The commission was created under the Anti-Corruption Commission Act enacted on February 17 last year, after the Berlin-based Transparency International adjudged Bangladesh the most corrupt country of the world for the fourth consecutive year.

A section of the urban civil society had been demanding an independent watchdog to curb widespread corruption, and the ruling BNP was pledge-bound to form an 'independent commission'.

The civil society seemed happy particularly because the commission had no obligation to get a nod from anybody to investigate any person or to prosecute any person on graft charges.

The Bureau of Anti-Corruption (BAC), which ceased to exist with the creation of the commission, required the approval of the prime minister to probe into the allegations of corruptions against ministers as well as top civil and military bureaucrats.

But as soon as the commission came into being, both the government and the commission began to make a mess of things related to independent functioning of the body, and the commission initiated a series of blunders.

It all began with the chairman of the commission allowing, by a notification on November 24, Major General (retd) Abdul Matin to retain the post of the director-general of the Bureau of Anti-Corruption, and asking Matin, by a separate notification the same day, to become the secretary of the newly-created commission.

The step surprised all concerned, because the post of the DG of the BAC automatically ceased to exist with the creation of the commission under the new law in the first place.

There was, therefore, no scope for the DG of the BAC to continue in office. Secondly, the appointment of the secretary for the commission was premature, as the service rules for the employees of the commission were yet to be finalized.

Things got worse when a member of the commission told the press, amid controversy, that he was not aware of any meeting of the commission held for appointing any secretary.

Then came the government's turn. It appointed a retired bureaucrat, AMM Reza-e-Rabbi, as secretary of the so called 'independent' commission on December 22, reportedly in violation of the law, under which the authority of employing staff for the anti-corruption body lies with the commission. The government action has naturally raised questions in the civil society about its intention.

However, the High Court stayed the appointment of Reza-E-Rabbi on January 2, upon a writ petition filed by a lawyer, who argued that the law concerned empowers the commission, not the government, to appoint its secretary.

The HC also issued a rule nisi on the government to show cause within three weeks why the appointment would not be declared illegal, and ordered that the stay continues till disposal of the rule.

Meanwhile, the commission has a made of mess of its maiden effort to investigate into the reported allegation of corruption by top-level officials of about a dozen ministries, who are apparently responsible for the missing of over a thousand cars purchased by the government over the last few years.

The commission served notice, on January 1, to 13 secretaries, asking them to submit reports within four days, detailing information of the whereabouts of 1,028 cars, purchased for different projects under the ministries concerned, that are 'missing after the completion of the projects'.

The secretaries of the ministries include those of the local government division, the rural development and cooperatives division, the economic relations division, the ministries of health and family welfare, information, agriculture, education, primary and mass education, women and children affairs, posts and telecommunications and the Bureau of Statistics.

The concern of the commission about the missing cars is definitely genuine, but the secretaries concerned have reportedly decided to defy the commission's notice - thanks to a technical mistake made by the watchdog.

The secretaries argue that they do not have to consider the notices As they were signed by one deputy director (administration) of the commission - a post that does not exist at the moment.

The issue got further complicated when one of the commissioners, Prof Moniruzzaman Mian, told the press on January 2 that the commission had not made a decision to issue notices to the secretaries on the missing cars issue.

"I came to know about the notices from newspaper reports just this morning," Mian was quoted to have said. The next day, on January 3, Moniruzzaman Miah issued an "office order" asking the "Commission's Officials" not to take any decision or action.

The cabinet division of the government asked the commission on January 3, two days after the latter issued notices to the secretaries, not to allow the staffers of the now-defunct Bureau of Anti-Corruption to be involved in the activities of the commission "until framing of the rules for their absorption in the commission" was completed.

The division's letter, sent to the chairman of the ACC, said that "the staffers of the defunct bureau would remain attached to the commission as reserved staff and they would not be involved in any activities of the commission under the present circumstances".