ACC to be recast, Hasina tells JS

She censures the commission for playing into hands of interim govt
Staff Correspondent
The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, on Wednesday said her government would reconstitute the Anti-Corruption Commission to eliminate the vices from the society.
‘The commission will be reconstituted so that it can operate effectively and with transparency and accountability,’ she said responding to a supplementary question from the treasury bench lawmaker Shamsur Rahman Sharif during the question and answer session in parliament that continued to be a dull and dreary affair due to the absence of the opposition BNP and its allies.
Hasina, also the Awami League president, said her government was committed to do away with bribes and corruption from all levels and with this end in view the government had already taken some initiatives with the help of the Anti-Corruption Commission.
She censured the commission for turning its anti-graft drives into a campaign against politicians during the interim regime.
‘The commission’s activities had been called into question when it was used politically during the caretaker government’s rule, when it started drives against politicians and took part in the designs to float parties, implement a minus-two formula and balance theory’, she said.
Replying to a question from Mahbub Ara Guinea, the prime minister said her government had taken steps for unearthing all information relating to the money smuggled out during the regime of the BNP-led coalition government. She said that the government had already constituted an inter-organisational taskforce with the Bangladesh Bank governor as its convener for bringing back the siphoned off money.
Hasina also informed the house that the United States department of justice had filed a case against former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s son Arafat Rahman and his accomplices after freezing nearly $29,88,249 in Singapore.
She said the BNP-led alliance government had destroyed several institutions during their rule through brazen politicisation and vowed to restore accountability in every sector.
‘The governments which had come to power without people’s mandate, and military rulers encouraged corruption and there was little or no accountability during their regimes,’ Hasina said responding to a supplementary question by Md Fazlul Azim of Noakhali 6 constituency.
She informed the house that the ACC had sent specific proposals to the government for eliminating corruption and that the government would look into the proposals.
Responding to another supplementary question from Awami League lawmaker Omar Faruque, she said more corruption suspects should be exposed…The lists should include more suspects if the people so desire, it should not be limited to just 20 graft suspects annually.
She told M Abdul Latif of Chittagong 10 constituency that her government had taken a number of initiatives for development of software industry and information technology (IT) services to present the nation with a ‘digital Bangladesh’ by 2021.
‘The goal is a digital Bangladesh by 2021. The IT education will be made compulsory at secondary level by 2013 and at primary level by 2021,’ she said.
Giving the details of the initiatives for the growth of software industry, Hasina said the government had already set up a software incubator at Karwan Bazar and was planning to set up a software technology park at Mohakhali. Efforts are under way to bring all ministries under a single computer network and introduce e-governance system.
She reaffirmed that her government would construct the second Padma bridge at Paturia point, as a part of her election pledge, after completing the first Padma bridge at Mawa point. Hasina said that her government would put a special emphasis on vocational training to reduce unemployment adding that it had a plan to establish a vocational school and a college in every upazila.

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