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The interim government’s Anti-Corruption Commission Reform Commission after its maiden meeting on Monday said that the reforms should aim at overhauling the ACC to free the anti-graft agency from political influence.

At a post-meeting press conference in Dhaka, the head of the reform commission and also Transparency International Bangladesh executive director Iftekharuzzaman said that partisan bureaucrats had made the ACC hostage, undermining its mandate to bring the corrupt people to justice.

‘After reexamining the existing ACC’s legal structures, the reform commission will propose necessary amendments so that ACC can never be dominated by partisan politics,’ Iftekharuzzaman told journalists, adding that  the spirits of the student-led mass uprising go against corruption.

The reform commission members — Dhaka University teachers Professor Mobasser Monem and Professor Muhammad Mahbubur Rahman, Supreme Court lawyers Mahdin Choudhury and Farzana Sharmin — were present at the meeting physically while SOAS University of London’s economics teacher professor Mushtaq Khan attended online.

Beside identifying the ACC’s weakness, the members also discussed their ‘scopes of work’.

‘ACC must work on two major aspects — corruption prevention and remedy. We will propose necessary amendments so that ACC can effectively hold corrupt people accountable,’ said Iftekharuzzaman.  

He added, ‘Besides bringing legal and institutional reforms to stop corruption by bigshots, a set of thoroughly-analysed reform proposals would also be recommended to change the people’s mindset so that they don’t take corruption as a subject of impunity.’ 

He expressed his hope about submission of reform proposals by the end of this year.

The reform commission expects to sit once in a week.

Within 90 days, the commission would also take interviews of stakeholders, including corruption case-dealing legal practitioners, academics and journalists, Iftekharuzzaman said.