Transparency International, Bangladesh (TIB) on Tuesday sharply criticised Anti-Corruption Commission for its reluctance and failure to take stern action against the big corrupts.

“Anti-Corruption Commission is a paper tiger, but in real sense, the anti-graft body is not working independently. It has no initiative to catch the powerful corrupts,” TIB executive director Dr Iftekharuzzaman said.

The TIB ED came up with the remark while the anti-graft watchdog unveiled a research report at a press conference at its headquarters in the capital’s Dhanmondi area this morning.

The ACC is influenced by the ruling party as it is soft to its politicians, observed the research report.

“The ACC is influenced by the ruling party directly or indirectly. The anti-graft national body is soft to politicians belonging to the ruling party. It was found in a follow-up research about the performance of ACC conducted in 2016-2019,” said Dr Iftekharuzzaman.

Shahzada M Akram, senior programmme manager of Research and Policy of TIB and its manager Shammi Laila Islam read out the research findings at the press conference.

“We’ve noticed some progress in the activities of ACC during the period but there’s no progress in overall perspective,” Iftekharuzzaman told reporters.

“ACC interrogated several ruling party MPs on corruption charges but there’s no visible punishment against them,” he added.

“The provision of requirement of prior government permission in filing cases against public officials must be repealed as it is unconstitutional.” he said.

TIB submitted a total of 16 recommendations to improve the ACC performance.