The bureaucratic stranglehold on the ACC will reduce it to one of those government offices with more bark than bite. It will be a complete negation of independence -- the magic word that could help it tame the monster of corruption. Bangladesh is rated as the most corrupt country in the world by the TI, and it is the bureaucrats coupled with politicians holding high public offices who are generally blamed for the disgrace. So it really sounds farcical that the same bureaucrats will be controlling the drive against corruption! That such a plan cannot work was made amply clear by the ACC's first encounter with the bureaucracy. It was no match for the bureaucrats who could get away with 26,000 missing vehicles!

The government took more than three years to fulfill its election pledge that an "independent" ACC would be set up. Then another 17 months have gone by as the dormant ACC, still struggling to have an organisational structure, shows all the signs of getting lost in a deep slumber. Finally, the government is reviving it with the news that the bureaucrats will control it. We believe the plan is counterproductive, so much so that even the chairman of the alive-but-not-well ACC has termed it unacceptable.

Doubts and misgivings regarding the intent of the government are bound to creep in when it fails to make the ACC functional in nearly four and a half years. And people can only become further apprehensive when the policy makers propose something, which contradicts everything that they have been saying since coming to power.

Now, the government cannot possibility retain control over the ACC and still claim that it is independent. If credibility is something that they attach a little importance to, they have to give the ACC full operational freedom uninhibited by bureaucratic control.