Strengthen ACC to contain graft

Speakers at a workshop in the city on Monday night stressed the need for immediate formulation of a National Integrity Strategy (NIS) for establishing good governance and practice of morality at all spheres of life.
The ongoing steps against corruption and prosecutions of the corrupt big shots are significant steps towards improving the overall governance situation in the country, they said at the workshop organised by Brac University's Institute of Governance Studies (IGS) and Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST).
However, prosecutions of the corrupt big shots is not enough to bring an all-out change in the total society as narrow partisan politics had led to decline in the people's trust on the civil administration, judiciary and law enforcement agencies as a whole, speakers said at the workshop.
A pro-people approach is needed to form a national Integrity Strategy to bring down corruption to a tolerable level, they said.
A holistic and participatory anti-corruption strategy must be developed and information awareness campaign is needed to address preventive, curative and control measures, they added.
Stressing the need to strengthen the judiciary, the Anti-Corruption Commission, Public Service Commission and Bangladesh Bank, they said civil society, media, and private sector should be used as partners in formulating the strategy to achieve the goal.
There is need for short, long term interventions and sustainable change through a strong reform process, said IGS Director barrister Manzoor Hasan, moderator of the workshop.
Barrister Jeniffar Khanom Jabbar, senior project officer of IGS, EU Shahidul Islam, Public Prosecutor of Sylhet, Tulshi Kumar Das, professor of Metropolitan University, AFM Kamal, former chairman of Sylhet pourasava, S Rina Devi, president of Bangladesh Manipuri Mohila Samity, Khushi Chowdhury, president of Mohila Parishad, barrister Arosh Ali, chief of Sylhet Udichi, Moulana Shah Muhammad Nazrul Islam, assistant director of Imam Training Academy, Faruque Mahmud Chowdhury, secretary of Sujon, Sylhet chapter, Irfanuzzaman Chowdhury, coordinator of Sylhet chapter of BLAST, spoke, among others, at the workshop.
A good number of civil society members participated in the workshop.