The government has formed a five-member search committee to recommend names to the president for appointing Anti-Corruption Commission commissioners, one of whom will eventually be chosen as the commission’s chairman.
The anti-graft watchdog has been non-functioning without commissioners and the chairperson for more than three and a half months.
A Cabinet Division gazette on Monday said that the search committee was constituted under the Anti-Corruption Commission Act, 2004, headed by Appellate Division judge Justice Md Rezaul Haque.
The other members are High Court Division judge Justice Razik-Al-Jalil, comptroller and auditor general of Bangladesh Md Nurul Islam, Bangladesh Public Service Commission chairman professor Mobashher Momen, and cabinet secretary Nasimul Gani.
According to the gazette, the committee will recommend suitable candidates for the appointment as three ACC commissioners according to the law.
It will prepare a panel of two candidates for each vacant commissioner position and submit the names to the president for consideration and appointment. The Cabinet Division will provide secretarial support to the search committee.
The new search committee includes the current cabinet secretary as the law stipulates that the current cabinet secretary can be inducted into the committee if the immediate past cabinet secretary or his immediate predecessor is not available or denies taking up the position.
The ACC has remained without a chairman and commissioners for more than three months after the previous commission resigned, leaving many of its activities almost at a standstill.
Under the law, major ACC decisions require to be approved by the commissioners appointed by the president through a search committee intended to ensure neutrality in the appointments.
After the July mass uprising, the interim government had earlier promulgated an ordinance aimed at strengthening the ACC.
However, the ordinance was among a host of 20 ordinances that lost validity after failing to secure parliamentary approval within the constitutionally mandated timeframe during the first session of parliament on April 11.
During a parliamentary discussion on the supplementary budget for FY2025-26 on June 15, independent lawmaker Rumeen Farhana criticised the government for not ratifying the ACC ordinance.
She said that Bangladesh had experienced major corruption scandals involving banks, mega projects, recruitment, promotions, and public procurement, hoping that the ACC would become a stronger institution.
Home minister Salahuddin Ahmed, however, told the Jatiya Sangsad that a stronger ACC would be established through the ongoing process of appointing a chairman and commissioners through a search committee.
He said that although the interim government’s ordinance was not ratified, the earlier ACC law had revived, which also contains provisions for forming a search committee.
Following the July mass uprising, the then ACC chairman Moinuddin Abdullah and two commissioners resigned on October 29, 2024.
The interim government later reconstituted the commission on December 10, 2024, appointing former home secretary Muhammad Abdul Momen as chairman.
The Momen-led commission resigned on March 3 this year only 16 days after the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led government took office on February 17.
Although nearly three and a half months have passed since then, the ACC has not yet been reconstituted despite the law requiring a new commission to be formed within one month of the resignation.
