ACC to monitor whether candidates spend black money centring election

Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Chairman Iqbal Mahmood yesterday reiterated that they will scrutinise the affidavits of all nomination seekers.

“Whoever submits affidavit before government, semi-government or constitutional bodies, we will cross-check the information with NBR (National Board of Revenue) and others to verify it,” he said, adding that the commission will do random sampling and take action against the persons if discrepancies are found.

ACC will begin their work in this regard from January next year.

He said this while addressing a meeting with media personalities at the ACC headquarter in Dhaka.

ACC held the meeting on the occasion of International Anti-Corruption Day, to be observed on December 9.

Citing examples that many candidates arrange extravagant feasts to earn the support of voters, the ACC chairman said, “We'll monitor whether candidates spend black money centring the election.”

“Our intelligence division is working on it,” he added.

Iqbal said they have so far received around 7.5 lakh calls on the ACC hotline but could not take action because most of these allegations were out of its jurisdiction.

Top officials and editors of different media outlets participated in the meeting.

Prothom Alo Associate Editor Abdul Qayyum suggested ACC not to summon a person before verifying that the allegations are true.

ETV Chief Editor and Chief Executive Officer Monjurul Ahsan Bulbul said ACC should take both hard and soft approaches.

“Awareness should be generated against corruption. At the same time, the commission needs to ensure exemplary punishment of corrupt individuals,” he said.

Ekattor TV Managing Director Mozammel Babu recommended disposal of corruption cases within a short period.

Zahirul Islam Mamun, chief executive editor of ATN Bangla, asked the commission to take actions against politicians who are involved in the “election nomination business”.

The ACC chairman said the matter of monitoring business centring nomination is out of the purview of ACC. “We can monitor corruption taking place in government organisations,” he added.

Among others, Mahfuz Anam, editor and publisher of The Daily Star, was present at the meeting.