ACC to probe corruption within military

Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Chairman Lt Gen (retd) Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury yesterday said the commission will investigate the corruption within the military in accordance with its schedule of offences.
He also said the commission is delaying the approval of the charge sheet in Gatco graft case for the verdict of the Supreme Court (SC) on the trial of cases under the emergency power rules (EPR) so that no complexity arises.
Mashhud was speaking at a routine press briefing at the ACC headquarters in the city where he highlighted the performance of the commission since he took over the office a year back as chairman.
Replying to journalists' quarries he said, “If there is any corruption within the military and if the schedule of our act covers it, we will investigate the matter.”
The question came following the disclosure by a Danish delegation on February 11 that quoted the ACC chairman as telling that the commission is extending its activities within the military.
“The commission has its schedule of offences and none will be spared,” Mashhud added.
Replying to a question about what will happen if the SC upholds the HC order regarding the case against Sheikh Hasina, he said, “The commission must find some ways out to ensure its existence.”
“We are bringing cases under the EPR following lawyers' recommendations. The SC verdict will guide us in taking decision in future,” he added.
The ACC chief said the move to bring back siphoned off money was not successful as there is no competent authority to deal with the issue.
“The matter should be dealt with in a planned way with the help of other countries which will agree on the issue in principle,” he added.
“We could not complete our task about the corruption suspects published in different lists. So we should not think of publishing another list until the earlier work is finished,” he said replying to a question over the publishing of any more graft suspects list.
The ACC chief mentioned that due to lack of manpower, skill and experience they could not ensure desired standard in investigation.
“But, I think we are successful in changing the earlier image of the ACC. The first target of our efforts was to bring a change in the image of ACC,” he added.
The ACC yesterday absorbed 114 officials to meet the demand of its manpower and completed meetings with committees and sub-committees formed in 64 districts and 482 upazilas as a move to raise public awareness against corruptions and to resist them.