THIS is worrying that public servants, who handle governance issues, have topped the list of people, as Anti-Corruption Commission data show, engaged in corruption such as illegal wealth, bribery, power abuse and illicit financial flows. The public servants are followed by people in private service, businesspeople, politicians and elected representatives. And, the situation keeps worsening. Official data show that the commission conducted inquiries of 292 corruption complaints in January鈥揗arch and filed 153 cases against 477 people in connection with corruption, with 144 public servants topping the list, followed by 113 people in private service, 60 politicians, 44 businesspeople, 11 public representatives and 105 from other professions. The number of public servants accused in January鈥揗arch is more than the number of public servants accused in 2024. The commission in 2024 filed cases against 346 public servants, 187 people in private service, 71 businesspeople, 32 politicians, 30 public representatives and 205 from other professions. In 2024, the pattern was the same, with 120 public servants, 33 people in private service, 8 businesspeople, 2 politicians, 12 public representatives and 50 from other professions.
Experts say that corruption by public servants is increasing as the officials suspected of being corrupt are not generally, and effectively, punished for the crimes. They, therefore, advise that the authorities should arrange for expeditious disposal of corruption cases and proceedings free of interference that could, in valid cases, lead to conviction. They believe that the corrupt do not usually face consequences and such people, rather, gain social status. Such a proposition adds to the involvement of public servants in corruption. Whilst some seek to say that as the Anti-Corruption Commission works mostly on corruption of public services and does not deal much with illicit financial flows or the accumulation of wealth beyond known sources of income by people other than public servants, a high presence of public servants in the commission鈥檚 list becomes evident. But, officials now working with the commission seek to differ, noting that it deals with all the cases with utmost sincerity. Some say that the social and political environment is also conducive to corruption. The laws that are there to stop corruption are strong. Yet, corruption cannot be tackled. They believe that this reflects the absence of effectiveness of the Anti-Corruption Commission and of the goodwill of the government and political parties. Data suggest that public servants heavily indulged themselves in corruption during the Awami League regime, toppled in a mass uprising in August 2024.
The government should, therefore, empower the commission more, arm it up with more devices and stop meddling in the commission鈥檚 affair to stop corruption among public servants.