ACC spends Tk 7.74cr on hiring lawyers

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) yesterday said it has spent over Tk 7.74 crore since January 2008 for hiring lawyers in 500 corruption cases.
ACC Director General (Admin) Col Hanif Iqbal disclosed it at a routine press briefing at the ACC headquarters.
The revelation about the commission's expenditure on hiring lawyers came after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on February 17 said 'rationality and righteousness' of the spending of huge amounts of money for hiring lawyers by the ACC will have to be investigated.
In 2007-08 fiscal year, the ACC spent Tk 5,11,59,866 for hiring 51 lawyers on regular payroll.
The lawyers include four senior prosecutors, 10 advisory counsel, 22 public prosecutors (PP), one assistant PP and seven lawyers for dealing with writ petitions.
In the first month of this year, the ACC reduced the number of lawyers on regular payroll to eight keeping open the option for appointing lawyers for a particular case if necessary.
"The commission decided to reduce the number of lawyers this year as many of the corruption cases were stayed by the higher court and the number of special courts got reduced," said Hanif Iqbal.
The number of special courts was reduced to five from ten in Dhaka after bulk of the corruption cases were stayed by higher court because of some weakness in the ACC act, 2004.
Verdicts have been delivered in over 150 out of 500 corruption cases involving the commission.
This year the ACC has so far filed 14 first information reports, submitted 47 charge sheets to the courts and spent Tk 2,62,81,700 for hiring lawyers.
Of the 51 lawyers, each public prosecutor drew monthly salary of Tk 75,000 and also received Tk 50,000 for each case after the verdict was delivered while senior lawyers got monthly salary of Tk 2 lakh and each APP Tk 50,000.
"The audit system for the commission is not different from other government institutions. The commission has a legal system for expenditure and the commission itself decided on its expenditure based on law," Hanif added.
Sources said at least five PPs resigned after the commission decided to reduce the number of lawyers in the wake of widespread criticism of its expenditure on hiring lawyers.