1. Presentation on
Laws of Anti Corruption Commission
Bangladesh
6 January 2013 Dr. Md. Shamsul Arefin
1
2. Anti-Corruption Commission
Bangladesh
Historical Background of ACC
The formal institutional practice to curbing corruption
was initiated in Bangladesh thorough a long
evolution of
system.
Formation of Enforcement Branch of Anti-Corruption was
officially recognized many years before the country’s
independence in 1971.
During the British rule, corrupt practices were detected in
the Food Department and as such, in 1944, the Enforcement
Branch was formed in the Police Department to fight such
corruption
3. Anti-Corruption Commission Bangladesh
Summary Profile, Outline and Mandate of ACC
The first Act against corruption was made in 1947
under the title of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
As there was no investigating agency other than the
police, under the Act, certain offences were declared as
offences of corruption and those were made cognizable for
the police to investigate.
The Police Department was entrusted to investigate such
corruption cases until the establishment of the Bureau of
Anti-Corruption in 1957.
4. Anti-Corruption Commission Bangladesh
Summary Profile, Outline and Mandate of ACC
Establishment of the Bureau of Anti-Corruption
As the Police Department failed to handle corruption
properly, the then Government felt the need to establish a
separate agency to fight corruption. For that purpose the Anti-
Corruption Act was passed in 1957 and the Bureau of Anti-
Corruption was established under the Act.
The Bureau continued to function even after 32 years of
independence of Bangladesh. Despite the continuous existence
of the Bureau, corrupt practices were never under control, rather,
widespread corruption turned into the single biggest roadblock
towards economic development.
5. Anti-Corruption Commission Bangladesh
Summary Profile, Outline and Mandate of ACC
Establishment of Anti-Corruption Commission:
The Anti Corruption Commission Bangladesh consists of three
Commissioners from whom the President appoints a Chairman for a period
of four years. There are one Secretary, six Director General, 12 Directors
and
some other officers as investigators and prosecutors.
The total number of stuff is now 1073. The Commission is independent in
executing its duties and responsibilities. Anti Corruption Commission
Bangladesh was formed through the act promulgated on 23 February 2004 that
into force on 9 May 2004.
7. Functions of the Commission
(Sections 17)
• To enquire into and conduct investigation of offences mentioned
in the schedule
• To file cases on the basis of enquiry or investigation and conduct
cases
• To hold enquiry into allegations of corruption on its own motion
or on the application of aggrieved person or any person on his
behalf
• To perform any function assigned to Commission by any Act in
respect of corruption
• To review any recognized provisions of any law for prevention of
corruption and submit recommendation to the President for their
effective implementation
• To undertake research, prepare plan for prevention of corruption
and submit to the President, recommendation for action based on
the result of such research
6 January 2013
Dr. Md. Shamsul Arefin 7
8. Section 26 of the Anti-Corruption Act, 2004
• Declaration of Properties
• (i) If the Commission is satisfied on the basis of its own information and after
necessary
• investigation that any person or any other person on his behalf is in possession or has
obtained ownership of property not consistent with his legal sources of income then
the commission through an order in writing shall ask that person to submit a statement
of assets and liabilities in the manner determined by the commission and to furnish
any other information mentioned in that order.
• (ii) If any person -
• a) after having received an order mentioned in sub-section (1) fails to submit the
written statement or furnish the information accordingly or submits any written
statement or provides any information that is false or baseless or there are sufficient
grounds to doubt their veracity or
• b) submits any book, account, record, declaration, return or any document under sub-
section (1) or gives any statement that is false or baseless or there are sufficient
grounds to doubt its veracity, then that person will be sentenced to a prison term of up
to three (3) years or a fine or both.
9. Section 27 of Anti-Corruption Commission Act, 2004
Possession of Property in Excess of Known Sources of
Income
(i) If there are sufficient and reasonable grounds to believe that a
person in his/her own name or any other person on his/her
behalf is in possession and has obtained ownership of moveable
or
Immovable property through dishonest means and the property
is not consistent with the known sources of his/her income and if
he/she fails to submit to the court during trial a satisfactory
explanation for possessing that property,
then that person shall be sentenced to a prison term ranging
from a minimum of three years to a maximum of ten years
imprisonment, and these properties shall be confiscated.
10. Relevant Laws
• The relevant laws for investigation of corruption cases are the Criminal
Procedure Code (Cr PC), 1898 and the Anti-Corruption Commission Act (ACC
Act), 2004. The former one is the general procedural law for investigation and
trial of criminal cases. The latter one is the special law against corruption. As
far as investigations of corruption cases are concerned, if any conflict
between the provisions of the aforesaid Acts is found, the provision of the
latter Act will prevail.
• The Cr PC describes under sections 154 to 173 how offences are registered
with police stations, investigations are made and the reports of investigations
are submitted before the court for trial. The Anti-Corruption Commission Act
dictates an investigator to conduct an enquiry before lodging/registering a
First Information Report (FIR) stating the offence(s) committed. If prima facie
evidence is established in enquiry, an FIR is lodged with the police station and
thereafter the formal investigation starts under the provisions of the Cr PC. An
investigation ends with submission of an Investigation Report before the
court.
11. Definition of Corruption
• Corruption is operationally defined as the
misuse of entrusted power for private gain-
Transparency International.
• Corruption is the abuse of public office for
private gain - World Bank
• Misuse of Power for private gain
Bribery
Extortion
Manipulation of Laws
6 January 2013 Dr. Md. Shamsul Arefin 11
12. Legal Definition of Corruption
According to the Section 2(e) of the Anti-
Corruption Commission Act-2004 :
‘Corruption’ means the offences set out in
the schedule to this law”.
6 January 2013 Dr. Md. Shamsul Arefin 12
13. The Dynamics of Corruption
• C =M+D-A-S
• Where, C=Corruption
• M= Monopoly
• D= Discretion
• A= Accountability
• S= Public sector salaries
6 January 2013 Dr. Md. Shamsul Arefin 13
14. Discretion!!!
The exercise of individual
judgment, instead of formal
rules, in making decisions is
discretion.
6 January 2013 Dr. Md. Shamsul Arefin 14
18. Some Sources of Corruption
1. Over and under-invoicing in Imports & Exports
2. Tendering
3. Procurement
4. Audit
5. Land management
6. Law enforcement
7. Customs
8. Loan from Banks
9. Getting Justice
10. Others
6 January 2013 Dr. Md. Shamsul Arefin 18
19. • Bribes and kickbacks at public interface
• Bid rigging or collusive agreements
• Use of discretion
• Monopoly service providers
• Theft from local accounts and abuse of
public assets
• Fraud/Forgery/Misrepresentation
Anatomy of CorruptionAnatomy of Corruption
6 January 2013 Dr. Md. Shamsul Arefin 19
20. 6 January 2013 Dr. Md. Shamsul Arefin 20
Role of Civil Servants
Use minimum or no discretion
Create perfect competitions
Open Integrity unit
Maintain Transparency
Ensure Accountability
Ensure Rule of law
Ensure Good governance
Follow a person who is a Role Model to you
Try to be a Role Model to others
21. Protection of Values
Now in many cases, people do not feel any hesitation to take paper,
pen or ink from the office to home for personal use. But once taking
pen or pencil or ink from office to home for personal use was
considered a serious mental pressure.
Mr Mohammad Ali Ex, Chief Minister of Pakistan after submitting
resignation letter from his office, he took pen of Bangabhaban with
him beyond his knowledge. But when he had seen the pen in his
pocket, he came back and returned it to Bangabhaban. If this is
happened now a days, people might say it is done just as a
administrative standbazi.
6 January 2013
22. Teaching of Hazrat Muhammed SA
(Peace be upon him)
Prophet Hazrat Muhammed SA (Peace be upon him) once appointed Abdullah-bin –
Laithai of Banu Jargan tribe as Amil (tax collector). At the time of depositing the
collected zakat (compulsory tax on wealth from Muslims) before the Prophet
Muhammad (Peace be upon him), Abdullah had divided that into two parts and said,
“O Prophet (Peace be upon you)! One part of this is zakat money from people, and the
other is the gift presented by people to me.”
Hearing this, the Prophet (Peace be upon him) said, “Would the people have given the
gifts to you if you had not been given the responsibility of collecting zakat?” Saying
this, the Prophet of Islam instructed Abdullah to deposit the gifted amount along with
the collected revenue to Baitulmal (government treasury), and the following morning
issued an official circular prohibiting officials to receive any gift from people. He
added further:
“If anybody is entrusted with official responsibility, he will be given salary sufficient
to meet his needs. If he receives anything beyond this, that would be a breach of
trust”(Al-Buraey,1985:245). Another related Hadith (Teachings of Prophet Muhammed
sa, (Peace be upon him) is that:
“He who receives bribe, he who offers bribe and the mediator between the two,
are all equally doers of punishable offence”.6 January 2013
23. Corruption – A Global Threat
Cost of corruption
exceeds the damage
caused by any other
single crime
• World Bank – More than 1 trillion US$
is paid in bribes a year
• Asian Development Bank – Cost of
corruption = up to 17% of GDP
• The harm exceeds the proceeds –
US$ 1 bribes = US$ 1.7 damage
6 January 2013 Dr. Md. Shamsul Arefin 23
24. Which Countries Are Corrupt?
• The Transparency International 2011 Corruption
Perceptions Index shows that the most honest countries are
Finland, New Zealand, Iceland, Denmark, and Singapore.
• The most corrupt countries are Haiti, Guinea, Myanmar,
Iraq, Bangladesh, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo,
and Sudan.
• China, Brazil, Ghana, Senegal, Peru, Mexico, Saudi Arabia,
India, and Egypt all rank in the middle of the 163 countries
ranked.
• Singapore, Hong Kong and Botswana are clean now but
once they were not clean.
6 January 2013 Dr. Md. Shamsul Arefin 24
26. 6 January 2013 Dr. Md. Shamsul Arefin 26
Whistleblower means-
An employee who refuses to
engage in and or reports illegal or
wrongful activities of his
employer or fellow employees.
27. How to tackle corruption in Bangladesh
1. Developing long-term anti-corruption strategy
2. Creating citizen’s will
3. Effective decentralisation of government agency
4. Create a sense of hate about corruption
5. More transparency and more simplification of
procedures
6. Incentives for good performance
7. Awareness and Motivational programme
6 January 2013
Dr. Md. Shamsul Arefin 27
28. 6 January 2013
Dr. Md. Shamsul Arefin 28
Conclusion (Con’t)
Corruption is widespread in some countries .
First, the motivation to earn income is extremely strong,
aggravated by poverty and by low and declining civil service
salaries and the absence of risk-spreading Mechanisms.
Second, opportunities to engage in corruption are numerous.
Monopoly rents seeking behavior.
The discretion of many public officials is broad in developing
and transition economies, and this systemic weakness is
exacerbated by poorly defined, ever changing, and poorly
disseminated rules and regulations.
Third, accountability is typically weak. Competition are not
perfect often restricted.
29. Conclusion
The watchdog institutions that provide information on
which detection and enforcement is based—such as
investigators, accountants, and the press—are also
weak.
The two parties to a bribe often both benefit, bribery
can be extremely difficult to detect. Even if detection
is possible, punishments are apt to be mild when
corruption is systemic—it is hard to punish one person
severely when so many others are likely to be equally
guilty.
Finally, certain country-specific factors, such as
population size and natural resource, also appear to be
positively linked with the prevalence of bribery.
6 January 20136 January 2013
