Cabinet rejects a shameful appeal by the public administration ministry
It is unimaginable that the public administration ministry—or anyone else for that matter—would seek any sort of immunity for retired public servants, who have been convicted of committing serious crimes or corruption. Yet that is exactly what the ministry did, according to a report by this newspaper on Tuesday. Fortunately, there was enough sense left for it to be turned down in a recent cabinet meeting. The fact that such exemption was sought, however, is a direct result of this government passing the Sarkari Chakori Ain 2018, which includes a provision that makes it mandatory for the Anti-Corruption Commission to take permission from the authorities concerned before arresting any public servant—or for a court to frame charges against them. This, of course, is in complete contradiction to Bangladesh's constitution, which states that all citizens are equal before the law.
While permission will not be required in case of taking action against ordinary citizens for similar offences, the ACC must take permission from the concerned ministry before arresting any public servant, according to section 41(1) of the Sarkari Chakori Ain 2018. In addition, the 2018 law also allows government servants to be convicted for less than a year, with little more than a slap on the wrist. Moreover, such public servants can be penalised with words of denunciation, temporary demotion or temporarily halting raises, while their jobs remain intact. According to various human rights group, the 2018 law gave government employees a type of impunity and expanded the scope for misuse of power, while creating barriers to observe the professional duties of state institutions and forces involved in curbing crimes and corruption as well as upholding human rights.
Despite granting such unusual privileges to public servants, it seems that was not enough for the public administration ministry which had the audacity to ask for more. And while we are appalled by such a request, we aren't really surprised by it. By passing the 2018 law, the government created this opportunity. And, of course, someone was eventually going to try and take advantage of it and take it further.
While we are pleased that the cabinet had the good sense to turn down the proposal, we must ask again why the government passed a provision that discriminates so heavily in favour of public servants. What was it expecting would happen once such a law was passed? And why should public servants be granted such exemptions at the cost of the ACC's ability to fight corruption and the integrity of the constitution? We believe that there are no good reasons for it—and we have not been given one by the government either—and therefore the government should immediately scrap the provision in question.
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