The Cabinet Division in a circular yesterday formally announced 1,107 Bac staff as government's reserve employees in the wake of boiling conflicts between the government and the ACC.

The Bac officials have been temporarily working at the antigraft commission since November 21.

The latest development is going to stall the ACC investigations into the status of 1,028 vehicles purchased for different development projects and allegations of tax dodging by a business house.

"A letter has come from the Cabinet Division regarding the status of the staff of the Bureau of Anti-Corruption,"ACC Commissioner M Maniruzzaman Miah told The Daily Star by telephone last night, without elaborating.

The ACC chairman, its two commissioners and their personal staff, meanwhile, are shifting their offices today from the Segunbagicha Bac office to the Bureau of Statistics building at Agargaon. They were attending their duties at the former Bac office since the ACC started functioning on November 21.

The ACC is supposed to screen out the Bac employees to absorb them in the commission on the basis of a rule that has not yet been framed. The conflict was quietly brewing between the bureaucrats and the ACC since it came into being over assigning some Bac staff.

The conflict surfaced when an ACC letter, issued by ex-Bac director (administration and establishment) Lt Col Abdul Hannan Mridha, asked 13 secretaries of different ministries to provide information on the whereabouts of 1,028 motor vehicles..

The wording of the letter angered the secretaries, sources said. Besides, the Bac director is still serving as a 'reserve government employee', which means he cannot issue letter on behalf of the ACC, the bureaucrats argue.

The secretaries feel that the ACC undermined the image of the administration by implying that officials have gobbled up these cars, although, in reality, various ministries are using these cars, ignoring some government procedures.

The ACC thinks that in accordance with the law, these Bac employees are now ACC staff. Section 35 of the ACC Act says that the service of the officers and employees of the dissolved Bac will be vested in the commission after scrutiny in line with a rule.

ACC Chairman Justice Sultan Hossain Khan has been claiming since taking over office that the former Bac staff will continue serving the commission like they served the Bac.

Attorney General AF Hassan Ariff in a letter on December 15 explained this rule to the ACC chairman after the latter enquired about whether the Bac staff are now staff of the ACC. The attorney general in the letter said that the act allows Bac officers and employees to work in the ACC from the day Bac was dissolved. They will continue in service until withdrawn by the government on the request of the commission under section 35 (2), he said.

The ACC later informed the Cabinet Division about the attorney general's interpretation. In response, the cabinet secretary in a letter said although the act vests all properties of Bac in the ACC, the staff have not been placed under it. "Therefore these employees should be treated as government's reserve officials and staffs," said Dr Saadat Hussain, the cabinet secretary.

Only the officials and staff who the commission will find qualified will work for the ACC, and "the remaining staffs will be considered as the government's surplus staffs", Hussain had also contented.

Earlier on November 24, the ACC chairman issued a circular assigning former Bac director MA Matin, a retired major general, as the director-general and secretary of the ACC. Matin was already serving Bac on contract. The commission chairman in another circular on the same day also empowered Matin to run administrative operations and make decisions.

On December 8, Sultan wrote a letter to the Cabinet Division and the Ministry of Establishment notifying them of Matin's new assignments and asking for further actions on the matter. On December 11, the government cancelled the contract of Matin.

On December 14, the ACC chairman wrote to the Cabinet Division and the establishment ministry contending that the cancellation of the contract is apparently against Section 35 of the ACC Act and that it will hamper the ACC functions, He urged the government to rescind the decision.

On December 18, without commenting on the cancellation of Matin's contract, Hussain replied that all the ACC decisions should be adopted at formal meetings of the commission. It is necessary for Cabinet Division officials concerned to see the minutes of the meetings where the ACC took its decision.

Sources said the letters from the ACC chairman gave the impression that it was his individual decision, not of the commission, prompting the government to appoint acting secretary Reza-e-Rabbi as the ACC secretary on December 22. The commission did not accept his joining letter, sparking the conflict. A writ petition challenging Rabbi's appointment is pending with the High Court.

Sources said some decisions of the ACC were not taken by its commissioners at formal meetings, a fact which has reportedly provided a section of Bac officials with vested interest the opportunity to influence a commissioner or the chairman in making those decisions.

For example, the ACC letter on the motor vehicles was sent without informing or consulting Commissioner Miah. Miah reacted angrily to the sending of the letter which he knew of from newspapers the next day.

Sources said Miah had earlier expressed his reservations about assigning former Bac officials to specific ACC responsibilities without formulating a rule and organogram for them.

Confusions over authority in the ACC further surfaced last week when Lt Col Mridha in a letter, which the commissioners did not know about, asked the ACC public relations officer not to talk to the press without commission's consent.

This prompted Miah to issue yesterday an official notice that said all officials should inform the commission before issuing such letter.

Sources pointed out the ACC has decided to shift its office because it felt that some corrupt Bac officials are very active at the Segunbagicha office.

The government on Sunday approved creation of posts of personal staff of the chairman and commissioners of the ACC.