THE Anti-Corruption Commission, the principal public agency that fights against corruption, has been practically inactive since March 3, when the chair and two other commissioners stepped down two weeks after the Bangladesh Nationalist Party assumed office following the February 12 general elections. In the absence of the commission, important anti-corruption functions have stalled as decisions on the launch of fresh inquiries, the filing of cases, the approval of charge sheets and the decision to freeze assets of corruption suspects could not be taken as they require full commission approval. The commission, in such a situation, is busy doing routine work, such as furthering ongoing inquiries and investigations that it can do without a full commission. And all this only weakens efforts against corruption. Whilst this keeps happening, no initiatives for the appointment of the commission through a selection committee raise concern. A former director general of the commission says that the stalemate has continued for more than a month and the delay only helps to create a condition favourable for corruption. This also adds to the backlog of cases. A delayed appointment of the commission also means a burden that the new commission would face, which will further harm anti-corruption activities.
The Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2004 and the Anti-Corruption Commission Rules 2007 do not provide any guidelines on how the agency should function without the commission. Experts say that the situation the commission is now in exposes long-standing structural weaknesses of the commission and questions the commission’s functional independence. The leadership of the commission has often been influenced by political considerations and since it was instituted as an independent commission in 2004, there have been seven commissions, but four of them could not serve out their full tenure, often because of political transition. Section 10 of the law that governs the commission lays out a 30-day notice period in cases of the resignation or removal of commissioners, but the provision was frequently ignored in the past. Repeated changes in the commission are said to have undermined the continuity of drives against corruption, which has, in turn, eroded public confidence. The chief of Transparency International Bangladesh says that such a situation is reflective of a broad pattern of political control of institutions of accountability. Any further strengthening of the Anti-Corruption Commission also became uncertain with the parliament’s allowing the Anti-Corruption Commission (Amendment) Ordinance 2025, promulgated on December 23, 2025 to further empower the commission, to lapse. This is an affront to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s electoral manifesto and its 31-point outline for structural reforms of state governance issued in July 2023.
The government should, therefore, expedite the appointment of the commission to resume anti-corruption activities and rebuild public confidence in the commission. It should also amend the law to further strengthen the commission.
