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Govt critical of ACC's costly legal help

Staff Correspondent
The cabinet division yesterday said it was not correct ethically to keep expensive lawyers appointed for a long time, instead of taking steps to have a permanent prosecution unit for the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
In a report placed before the parliamentary standing committee on public undertakings, the cabinet division however agreed with the contention that it was not possible to appoint expert lawyers for the ACC with the government-sanctioned remunerations. The report signed by Cabinet Secretary M Abdul Aziz came following the parliamentary body's query as to on what authority the ACC provided its lawyers with remunerations and salaries, higher than those of the chief justice.
The Daily Star obtained a copy of the report that incorporated explanation of ACC on the payment of its lawyers with higher rate.
The ACC spent Tk 7.74 crore for hiring lawyers in corruption cases in last two years.
In 2007-08 fiscal year, the ACC spent Tk 5.11 crore for hiring 51 lawyers on regular payroll. The lawyers include four senior prosecutors, 10 advisory counsels, 22 public prosecutors (PP), one assistant PP and seven lawyers for dealing with writ petitions.
In the first month of this year, the ACC reduced the number of lawyers on regular payroll to eight keeping open the option for appointing lawyers for a particular case if necessary.
According to the parliamentary body's claim, the anti-graft body gave Tk 2 lakh to each of its lawyers every month and it also spent Tk 13 crore as source money.
The committee on April 12 meeting asked the office of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to examine on what authority the ACC spent the money although the ACC laws do not have any provision for source money.
The office of the CAG yesterday placed a report before the parliamentary body, but the committee did not accept it.
"The report was partial and we asked the office of Comptroller and Auditor General to come up with full report on the expenditure,” Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, chief of the parliamentary body, said at a news briefing after the meeting.
On the expenditure of lawyers' payment, the ACC said a high level meeting on April 18 in 2007 decided to hire expert lawyers by giving higher rate and the cabinet division was informed about the decision of the meeting at that time.
The cabinet division in -report however said the ACC Act, 2004 has provision for appointing lawyers temporarily until a permanent prosecution unit is formed and rules are made to specify the terms and reference of their job. But the rules and the ACC's own prosecution unit are yet to be formed.
The report also explained the previous actions on freezing bank accounts of politicians and businessmen.