The chairman and two commissioners of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) resigned last Tuesday (October 29) almost three months after the fall of the Awami League government in a student uprising. Their resignations were accepted by the President.

The Cabinet Department issued a notification accepting their resignations on Thursday (October 31). Cabinet Secretary Dr. signed the announcement. Sheikh Abdur Rashid.

The notification said, "According to Section 10(1) of the Anti-Corruption Commission Act, 2004 (Act No. 5 of 2004), Chairman and Commissioner of Anti-Corruption Commission Mohammad Moinuddin Abdullah and Commissioner Zahurul Haque and Commissioner Mocha. Achia Khatun has resigned. Their resignations were accepted by the President on October 31.'

It is known that Chairman Moinuddin Abdullah and two commissioners have resigned citing personal reasons. Before resigning, they went to the office as usual on Tuesday morning and completed official work. They were scheduled to meet with the ACC Reform Commission in the afternoon. But around 1 pm, the commission received the news of the postponement of the meeting of the reform commission. Practically after that they finalized the decision on resignation. During the conversation, several senior officers of the ACC said that the chairman and two commissioners left the ACC office quietly after sending their resignation letters. At this time, Secretary Khorsheda Yasmin gave them forward. The ACC Reform Commission was supposed to come to participate in the discussion meeting with the Anti-Corruption Commission at 3:30 pm.

It is known that on March 3, 2021, Mohammad Moinuddin Abdullah was appointed as the chairman of the ACC. He succeeded Iqbal Mahmud. At that time Zahurul Haque was appointed as Commissioner (Investigation) along with him. A year and a half later, when Commissioner (Investigation) Mozammel Haque Khan retired, Achia Khatun was appointed.

Those concerned said that the interim government took over after the fall of the Awami League government in a mass uprising by the students. After that, starting from the secretariat known as the administrative headquarters, the farewell bells started ringing for the dictator's friends in the top positions of various institutions. As a result of this, the ACC chairman and two commissioners, who are known as subordinates of the fallen government, were demanded to be reshuffled. The coordinators who led the movement also went to the ACC recently and met the chairman and expressed their dissatisfaction with the role of the organization. The government formed a commission to reform the ACC. Then ACC decided to investigate hundreds of former ministers-MPs and government officials on charges of illegal wealth acquisition and money laundering abroad to gain the confidence of the government. But people from different classes and professions started commenting that these actions of ACC are showing off.

ACC Reform Commission Chief Executive Director of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB). Iftekharuzzaman criticized the work of the ACC and urged to reform the organization. Over the years, several reports have been published on the controversial work and role of the ACC. ACC chairman and two commissioners finally resigned on Tuesday in the face of many controversies.

A responsible officer of the ACC, who did not wish to be named, told Yugantar that a search committee will be formed soon to appoint new faces to the posts of the ACC chairman and two commissioners. The new commission will be appointed based on the recommendations of the committee. However, the ACC officials demanded transparency in the search committee work. They complained that there was no transparency in the work of the search committee during the Awami League government. For example, an official said, the names of the outgoing chairman and a commissioner were not in the list of the search committee. The list of the search committee has not been released. The President appoints people of the government's choice. But this time the search committee that will be formed will have to publish the list of recommended names. After that, the chairman and commissioner should be appointed on the basis of the majority opinion. Moreover, a plan can be made of what those who will be appointed as chairman and commissioner actually want to do to prevent corruption. Besides, there is a legal vacuum on how the work of the ACC will continue in the absence of the commission. It must be removed.

There are discussions inside and outside the ACC, the Moinuddin Abdullah Commission, as a subordinate of the fallen government, has made the ACC controversial in many cases. At the behest of the ousted Awami League government, the outgoing commission is the chief advisor of the current government, the Nobel laureate. A case was filed against Muhammad Yunus. Preparations for filing further cases against him were finalised. But he could not do it in a sudden change. Again, on the instructions of the government and the pressure of the high court, the commission started investigating the complaint against the former inspector general of police, Benazir Ahmed, but he left the country with the help of the administration and the ACC. Benazir withdrew Tk 13 crore from the bank during the commission's negligence investigation. In case of investigation of such sensitive corruption, ban on foreign travel and blocking of bank accounts were supposed to be done within 24 hours, but it was not done. Besides, the commission did not dare to investigate the embezzlement of thousands of crores of taka in the name of loans from the banks of the controversial S Alam Group and its smuggling abroad. No action has been taken against former Lands Minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury Javed and his wife despite having huge assets in the US, UK and Dubai. The chairman and two commissioners left with the responsibility of such numerous failures.