The BNP sent a letter to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on Monday demanding aninvestigation into the allegations of corruption against the ruling party leaders.
Party’s Joint Secretary General Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal, along with the opposition party’s Assistant Office Secretary Taiful Islam Tipu, went to the ACC office around 1pm and handed over the letter to the officials concerned.
Earlier, speaking at a press conference at the BNP chairperson’s Gulshan Office, Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir alleged that the ACC was not taking into cognizance the probe reports into various incidents of corruption.
“Rather, they are trying to hush up those matters. So, we have decided in the highest forum of our party that we will write to the Anti-Corruption Commission requesting them to investigate the incidents of graft,” Fakhrul said.
He said they would continue to raise various allegations of corruption and write to the ACC for taking proper action.
As per the decision, he said Alal was given the responsibility to meet the ACC officials and hand over a letter requesting it to look into the content of a leaked telephone conversation between the law minister and an adviser to the prime minister, and the allegation of siphoning off Tk2,000 crore abroad by a member of a sensitive family in Faridpur belonging to the ruling party.
"We hope that good sense will prevail upon the ACC to conduct proper investigations into the issues of corruption that we’re informing it about,” the BNP leader said.
He also urged the ACC to make public the findings of their investigations and take proper legal action accordingly.
Fakhrul said the media were exposing the awful scenario of corruption in the country which is going on with the "direct" help of the government.
“A grand festival of corruption is going on in Bangladesh. We are learning about many things as journalists are boldly writing on many such issues.”
He, however, bemoaned claiming that the ACC was not taking any action in this regard.
“We are observing that the ACC itself takes action against those of its officials and staff who want to work to prevent corruption. An official named Sharif has been transferred and demoted for investigating a particular corruption case.”
The BNP leader said retired bureaucrats or the serving bureaucrats were being appointed to the ACC in most cases who consciously try to prevent the investigations into the allegation of corruption against high-ranking government officials or the officials of the law enforcement agencies.
"Corruption is the biggest disease to destroy the potential of Bangladesh as it has now spread across the country like cancer. No work is now done without bribes and corruption anywhere in the country… The reason is that corruption is being pampered from the highest level of the government,” he observed.
Replying to a question, Fakhrul said their party has not yet made any decision to publish a white paper on the incidents of corruption committed during the tenure of the Awami League-led government.
