After serving for two years without anything to show for it, Dr. Maniruzzamam Mian, at the fag end of the alliance rule, asked for an all-party parliamentary body probe to identify its problems. Ironically enough, it sounds like the adage: "Physician, heal thyself."

With Bangladesh being rated as the most corrupt country in the world by international watchdogs for the fifth consecutive time, and donor pressure mounting to exorcise the demons eating up vital development funds, the ruling alliance, in a face-saving measure, constituted the ACC that is still limping in absence of the laws that will infuse life into it.

What struck a chord in the citizenry is the statement that Professor Mian made: "There is complete lack of transparency in the commission." Refuting the other commissioner's claim that the ACC had sent the draft of the rules to the cabinet division for its approval, Professor Mian said: "The draft of the rules is still lying with the Commission." What is apparent is that a bizarre relationship exists among the top brass in the commission, making it an unworkable and ailing organization from its very inception.

This commission was an effort on the part of the government to refurbish its image in the eyes of the donors. The World Bank and IMF threatened to block all development aid unless corruption was checked and disbursement of funds and allotment of works through tenders were made transparent. Justice Golam Rabbani, a former Supreme Court judge, said that it was simply an eyewash since there were no laws to guide the commission's work.

Against the backdrop of the fact that corruption had pervaded all tiers of the administration, making it difficult to attain pro-people growth in the country, the alliance government, with an air of a sanctimonious superiority, instituted the "independent" Anti-Corruption Commission by enacting a law, duly passed in parliament in November 2004. But the whole game proved to be an exercise in futility.

In sub-section 1 of Article 32, provision was made to rein in the commission and its activities. It states that in filing a case the commission will need to have prior permission, and a copy of that permission has to be submitted to the court while filing a case, with subsequent clause in Rule 32(2) that says that accord of such permission would be decided by enactment of rules. And the stumbling block is Article 34, saying that the ACC can only frame rules with the prior approval of the president. And the upshot of the whole exercise is that, as per the constitution of the country, the president, while performing his responsibilities, has to work as per the advice of the prime minister.

Against the backdrop of all these noble aspirations that are included in the inception paper of the commission, the prefix "independent" sounds farcical, and the future of the commission, as everyone could foresee, is fraught with uncertainty. Most shockingly, even after two years of its inception there are no laws guiding the commission to go ahead independently. In such a situation, neither the chairman nor the commissioners thought it proper to resign from their posts. What a complete waste of taxpayer money, especially in an organization that was brought into being to stop the looting of state wealth.

In any age, in any part of the world, unsuitable environment for work, or position without concomitant power and authority, would be reason enough for the appointees to resign. But not in Bangladesh, not at any age. The ACC, from the very day of its inception, stumbled and faced serious problems due to lack of adequate laws to deal with the corruption cases, and, as Professor Mian told the roundtable, as many as 80 cases that the ACC has filed remain pending with the court. Even when the top brass in the commission were not provided with the armour to fight the menace of corruption, but they had no guilty feelings about continuing with their jobs

Unsurprisingly, attempts to parachute political appointees into important positions, either in the ministries, or constitutional posts or autonomous bodies, have had mixed results. This is most clearly reflected in most appointments these days. During the tenure of the alliance government it was either the bureaucracy, or their chosen persons in important positions in the administration, that performed the most dirty work for their political masters.

While reflecting on the socio-economic situation in the Asian region in recent times, Professor Jagadish Bhagawati, an eminent economist of Columbia University,

suggested that political parties in our region should consider adopting the American system of political appointments in government. His reasoning stems from a realization that the so-called professional bureaucracy are either overtly loyal, or hostile, to the regime they are working with, and the result has been disastrous for the general public.

The tragedy is that Bangladeshi politics has not generated the requisite political culture to nurture the American system of political appointees who come and go with each government. The right sort of people are either not chosen, or are not attracted to the job.

Some of the appointees who have been drafted to bolster the PMO have scored more "same-side goals" than even the prime minister. To be more precise, the interference of the PMO also affected leadership in the power ministry, PDB, and power cell. The main reason why the BNP-led alliance government failed to add power plants, in response to the rising demands, is corruption.

Undeniably true, the alliance government's actions have been the subject of endless debate for the last two years. The much-vaunted action of the government in setting up the "independent" Anti- Corruption Commission has boomeranged badly, robbing the architects of their credibility. It only exposed the government's gradual U-turns, saying one thing and doing another, promising much but delivering little.

It is increasingly apparent that the men at the helm of affairs have been too clever for their own good. While speaking about the stalemate in the ACC, our law minister, in his inimitable manner and dispassionate exposition, said in a press interview that the government has made the ACC independent and if they have failed to carry out their task, the fault lies with the persons holding positions there.

Unfortunately the distinguished personalities holding on to the jobs are tight-lipped about the limitations and inadequacies in the rules they have been provided with. But the people's perception is that, credited neither with functional nor with financial autonomy, the organization, even after the passage of two years, is in limbo and has lurched into a crisis existence. Sadly enough, one of the senior members of the BNP fold has termed the commission as a "home for the old."

The present alliance government cannot possibly deny that the ACC could not make any dent in corruption because there was hardly any political will to make it fully operational. It has been reported that donors, including the World Bank and IMF, cancelled project assistance in the health, education, communication, fisheries and livestock, water resources, and environment sectors after detecting non-transparent deals and misappropriation of funds by influential persons in the government and political circles.

The government knew that the voters were sick to death of the system of governance prevailing in the country in which nothing moved without the greasing of palms. It knew that change was desperately required, and yet it did nothing at all to change anything. It has been the same story all over again.

Md Asadullah Khan is a former teacher of physics and Controller of Examinations, BUET.