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Speaker to ensure their presence now

JS body says ACC bosses undermine dignity of House

SlIAKHAWAT LlTON
Speaker Abdul I lamid will take steps to ensure that the previous chief of Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), its incumbent acting chief and the other commissioner appear before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Undertakings.
The assurance came following the committee's rigid stance on taking legal actions against former ACC chief Lt Gen (retd) Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury, Acting ACC Chairman M Habibur Rahman and Commissioner Abul Hasan Manzur Mannan for undermining the dignity of the House by refusing to appear before the committee.
"We requested the speaker to take necessary legal steps to ensure their appearing before the committee. The speaker assured us of taking all measures in this regard as per parliamentary rules and procedure," Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, chief of the parliamentary body, said at a briefing after meeting with the speakeryesterday.
He said no government organisation or official has the right to ignore the directives of parliament or any of its committees. "They [the ACC bosses] violated the laws and rules and undermined the dignity of the sovereign House," Alamgir said.
"The speaker will decide the date and time of their appearance before the com-▼ mittee," he later told The Daily Star.
Commenting on the assistance sought, the speaker said he would take decision in line with the rules and regulations after the parliamentary body applies to him in writing.
The parliamentary body had decided to discuss the problems faced by the ACC in discharging duties and its activities and procedures pursued during the two-year rule of the last caretaker government. The committee asked the ACC officials to appear at a meeting on April 12 with all procedural documents of those two years along with the organisation’s latest annual and audit reports.
But the ACC officials refused to appear before the committee, saying they are accountable only to the president, not parliament.
The parliamentary body
summoned the ACC officials again at a committee meeting yesterday, but they neither appeared at the meeting nor sent the documents sought by the committee, questioning the jurisdiction of the parliamentary body to summon them.
Former ACC secretary Delwar Hossain, who is now the land secretary, appeared before the committee and apologised for his "failure to understand properly" the previous summon.
At the April 12 meeting, the committee accused the four of contempt of parliament and again summoned them to yesterday's meeting to explain their failure.
"I received the notice for the previous meeting on April 8, just four days before the meeting. I could not properly examine and understand the parliamentary procedure within the short period of time. But this time. 1 received the committee's notice well ahead. I got sufficient time to understand it," Delwar told reporters after yesterday's meeting.
At the meeting, Delwar explained his activities as the ACC secretary, particularly in February 2007 after the mass resignation of the then ACC bosses.
He claimed that his actions were correct since the last caretaker government later amended the ACC act and gave retrospective effect to his actions, including serving notices on 50 politicians and businessmen asking them to submit wealth statement.
"If they think I am respon-sible for any wrong deeds, I am ready to accept any punishment," Delwar said.
The Cabinet Division in a report placed before the parliamentary committee also supported Delwar's explanations regarding serving the notices, meeting sources said.
The committee, however, did not agree with the explanations. Issuing notices without ACC's prior approval was illegal since parliament has not ratified the ordinance promulgated by the last caretaker government to this effect, it said.
The committee members blasted Delwar and asked him to explain under what capacity he made statements to the media before the April 12 meeting questioning the committee's jurisdiction to summon him.
Irked by the three ACC officials' refusal to appear before it for the second time, the parliamentary committee yesterday met with the speaker and informed him about the committee's decision to make them appear before it by any means, even if by issuing warrants against them, meeting sources said. The committee chief and members requested the speaker to initiate legal measures.
The next meeting of the committee will be held on June 9 to discuss the perfor-mance of the Rural Electrification Board. "If they [ACC officials) appear before the committee on that day, we may discuss the functions of the ACC," the committee chief said