The TI, obviously, is of the view that if the ACC had worked effectively, corruption would have been, to that extent, curbed in the country. Note the TI's change of emphasis away from the topmost ranking of Bangladesh as a corrupt country based on a global perception index; the report this time concentrates more on why and where the government has actually failed in containing the persistent malady.

The report has actually made three points: first, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) was formed not out of any 'political will' but as a 'concession' to donor and civil society pressures. In other words, the government was not spontaneously motivated to constitute the commission, which is the other way of saying that the government did not carry any conviction with the formation of the body. Obviously, the developments subsequent to the advent of the commission go to strengthen such impressions, however much the government may bask in the glory of having constituted such a body after all.

It has become a fixation with the powers that be that once a body is formed, no matter with whom and with what authority through delegation of powers, the government can jolly well wash its hands off any further responsibility in seeing it work. There we come to the second point in the TI report suggesting that government retains the wholesale control of the commission: its budget, staff recruitment and organisational structure.

The third reason for the ACC debacle has been pinpointed in the decision having been imposed by the government to 'rehire' the staff of the erstwhile Anti-Corruption Bureau which was, in the first place, dissolved for its ineffectiveness, making room for the ACC.

Needless to say, the above drawbacks are contrary to the provisions of the ACC Act. The points made in the TI report are extremely cogent, unassailable and worthy of endorsement. If we are serious in creating a proper institution against rampant corruption, then there would be no alternative but to reorganise the existing body wholesale and give it the teeth it needs to function. The government should cease placing the blame at the doorstep of the internal conflict-ridden ACC because it can not hide the fact that it had not fundamentally empowered the body to be effective? It lies with the government to change things around now.