The decision was taken at a closed-door meeting between the ACC and the education ministry officials yesterday.

"We will conduct sudden visit to the NCTB and the education directorate to reduce corruption," ACC Commissioner Maniruzzaman Miah told journalists after the meeting, also attended by officials of the NCTB and the directorate.

"We have not come here to probe specific allegations but to find out ways to reduce corruption in the education sector," Miah said about the discussion in the meeting.

The meeting also discussed how to mitigate the teachers' hassle in drawing their pension and seeking information about their monthly payment orders (PMO).

"I asked them [ministry officials] to introduce a system so that the poor schoolteachers can get their retirement benefits in their bank accounts without coming to the capital and paying bribes," Miah told the journalists.

Sources said Miah at the meeting raised the issue of corruption in teachers' appointment and the selection of books for the school curriculum.

He said the impression of the education department is not good.

However most officials of the NCTB and the education directorate alleged that newspapers publish baseless and fabricated news items to harm their image.

Education Secretary M Abdul Aziz directed the ministry officials to be honest in their work otherwise he would hand over the corruption files to the ACC.

Prof Dilara Hafiz, director general of the Directorate of Education, said she had been trying to reduce corruption at the directorate and reform the system.

"We have deployed some members of Ansar so that the teachers and other people do not have to pay bribes to the officials," she said. "We will upload the MPO list on the website so that teachers from the rural areas can know it without coming to the head office."

NCTB official M Sirajul Haq said he did not find any corruption in his department. He also blamed journalists for running "baseless" stories about corruption in the sector.

The engineers of the education ministry told the closed-door meeting that musclemen of the ruling party prevent the contractors from dropping the tender schedules. But the meeting did not discuss the issue.

Meanwhile, ACC Member Moniruddin Ahmed yesterday held a meeting with the officials of the Dhaka Bond Customs and ICD at Kamalapur.

He told the officials that the ACC would keep an eye on the customs offices and investigate any allegation, if found against them.

Atiqur Rahman Khan, commissioner of Dhaka Bond Customs, Nasir Uddin, commissioner of ICD, Dhaka Customs House, and Azam-e-Sadat, joint commissioner of Dhaka Customs, were present at the meeting.