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TIB slams bill

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
The anti-corruption commission bill does not reflect people's demand for a free and neutral commission, Transparency International, Bangladesh (TIB) said hours before the bill was passed in parliament with a last-minute amendment yesterday.
"We are disappointed at the bill that we fear will not let the commission work freely and neutrally as the nation expected. So we are not accepting it," TIB Chairman Professor Khan Sarwar Murshid said at a press conference at the corruption watchdog's office in Gulshan.
He quoted Sections 25 and 30 of the bill that empower the government to decide on the commission's
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budget in a provision that he said would infringe on financial and jurisdictional independence of the new body.
"The provision has chained the commission to financial hurdles," Prof Murshid said, adding it will not be able to work as an independent body like the Election Commission, Comptroller and Auditor General's Office and the Supreme Court.
Section 28 of the bill repeats the provision of seeking government permission before prosecuting government officials protected by the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1958, he said before the House accepted the amendment excluding the controversial provision from the act.
The concern hit the spotlight a day after a Bureau of Anti-corruption (Bac) official told The Daily Star that the provision will dent independence of the body.
The bill lifts the bar that prevents commission members from engaging in extra-jurisdictional work in a move that he said would put strains
on the commission's performance.
"As the search body (the five-member group that will select six members for the president to appoint three of them as commissioners) does not include any representative of the opposition party, it may favour the government by handpicking members for the commission," Prof Murshid said.
The bill overlooked some civil-society proposals, including noninclusion of Bac officials and employees in the commission and inclusion of customs, money laundering and passport in its outreach. "We don't want a second Bac that played a biased role."
On what the TIB will do next, the watchdog chairperson said it would hold talks with civil society leaders to mobilise them to voice for amendment to some sections of the bill.
TIB Director (Research) Dr Iftekhar Hossain, Research Associate Shamaila Mahbub and Dr Asif Nazrul, a law teacher, were also present.