The High Court on Tuesday asked the government authorities to enforce the Government Servants (Conduct) Rules, 1979, which require public servants to declare their and their dependents鈥� assets.
The rules said that every government servant shall, at the time of entering government service, make a declaration to the government through their authorities of all immovable and movable properties, including shares, certificates, securities, insurance policies, and jewellery, that belong to them and their family members.
The rules further said that government servants are also required to submit to the government, through their authorities, the statements of the assets with the accounts if the assets, as shown in the declaration at the time of joining the service, have increased or decreased every year.
The High Court also asked the authorities to submit a progress report on the execution of the directive in three months.
The bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Kazi Ebadoth Hossain issued the directive after hearing a writ petition filed by Supreme Court lawyer Subir Nandi Das.
The court also issued a rule asking the government authorities to explain in four weeks why they would not be directed to ensure the disclosure of the movable and immovable properties of government servants and their family members, preserve the assets digitally, and update them from time to time.
The court asked the cabinet division鈥檚 secretary, the finance secretary, the public administration secretary, the home secretary, the law secretary, the Anti-Corruption Commission鈥檚 chairman, the National Board of Revenue鈥檚 chairman, Bangladesh Bank鈥檚 governor, and the deputy governor of the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit to respond to the rule.
The High Court said that there should be a law like the one present in neighbouring India, making it mandatory for public servants to declare their assets at the time of joining the service and during their retirement.
The court noted that in India, having an increase in assets of a retired public servant of 10 per cent over what they had at the time of joining the service is deemed to be a publishable offence.
The court said that corruption and money laundering were the main obstructions to development and good governance.
It stated that people from all walks of life should wage a movement against corruption and money laundering at any cost.聽
The court said that some officials had been amassing illegal wealth due to non-enforcement of the rules.聽
Lawyer Subir told the court that the sovereignty of the state is now under threat after allegations of corruption were raised against former inspector general of police Benazir Ahmed and former Customs, Excise, and VAT Appellate Tribunal President Matiur Rahman.
He said that every public servant was required to submit statements of their assets at the time of joining the service and update them annually, in accordance with Rule 13 (1) (2) of the Government Servants (Conduct) Rules, 1979.
But there is no enforcement of the asset declaration provision, resulting in corruption by high-level officers, he added.
Deputy attorney general AKM Amin Uddin Manik appeared for the government, while lawyer AKM Fazlul Haque represented the ACC.
