After around three decades of passage of the Ombudsman Act, the government has finally started looking for a competent person for the position to investigate allegations of corruption and abuse of power by public authorities and recommend action.

"We are looking for a suitable person to be appointed as ombudsman within a reasonable time," Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shafique Ahmed told The Daily Star recently.

The ruling Awami League pledged in its electoral manifesto to make the appointment for establishing good governance, but it has not yet taken any step to that end.

When his attention was drawn to this, the law minister cited the February 25-26 BDR incidents for the delay.

Asked if the act, which was passed in parliament in 1980, requires any amendment to make it up-to-date, he replied in the negative.

Constitutional experts observe that allegations of rampant abuse of power by public authorities are frequent and these allegations cannot be investigated for lack of legal mechanism.

"Often, persons feeling aggrieved approach the Supreme Court in writ jurisdiction. Many of their grievances are not amenable to writ jurisdiction and the Supreme Court declines to exercise jurisdiction. In the process, there is much waste of time of the Supreme Court that could have been utilised in appropriate cases," former attorney general Mahmudul Islam says in his book "Constitutional Law of Bangladesh".

In line with the constitutional provision on establishing the office of ombudsman, parliament passed the Ombudsman Act in April 1980. But none of the previous BNP, AL or Jatiya Party governments moved to appoint the ombudsman.

The act provides the ombudsman with sweeping authority to investigate any action taken by a ministry, a public officer or a statutory public authority in any case where a complaint in respect of such action is made to him.

Following enquiry', if it appears to the ombudsman that injustices were caused to the complainant or to any other persons in consequence of misadministration, he will recommend that ministries or statutory public authorities concerned provide remedy to the injustices.

On receiving the recommendations, the authority will inform the ombudsman within a month about the actions taken. The ombudsman is also empowered to ask any ministry and statutory public authority to take legal, departmental or disciplinary actions against an individual found guilty.

If the ombudsman is not satisfied with the action taken, he may prepare and send a special report on the case to the president.

The ombudsman will also prepare an annual report on discharging of his functions and submit it to the president who will place it in parliament for discussion.

The law also empowers the ombudsman to punish any person for obstructing his functioning with simple imprisonment of up to three months, or with fine of up to Tk 2,000, or both.

At present, the parliamentary standing committees oversee the functions of various ministries, but they are facing limitations of powers and logistic support to perform their duties to ensure accountability of the executive to parliament.

The law minister said once the office of the ombudsman is established, it will largely assist in the efforts to establish good governance.