ACC Chairman Justice Sultan Hossain Khan told The Daily Star on Thursday that they could not start any such investigation since they did not receive any complaint against the ministers, officials or leaders of the immediate past government.

The BNP-led four-party coalition government dissolved the then Bureau of Anti-Corruption (Bac) and formed the ACC on November 21, 2004, and appointed Justice Sultan and two commissioners--Prof Maniruzzaman Miah and Maniruddin Ahmed.

There is allegation that the appointments were made on political consideration.

The newly formed anti-graft body claims itself to be "independent" and the previous government also branded it so.

The then law minister Moudud Ahmed, who tabled the bill for formation of the ACC, strongly asserted that the commission will act independently to root out corruption to a great extent.

In reality, however, the ACC failed to play any effective role in over last two years.

It failed to get its rules approved, experienced government intervention on different occasions, and got involved in legal complexities, turning the institution ultimately into a totally dysfunctional body.

The ACC sent the draft of a set of rules needed for its functioning to the present caretaker government for approval, but it is yet to get any response.

A few ACC officials said they cannot move ahead with the commission's work as those rules are yet to be approved. "Since the rules for filing cases have not been approved, filing of new corruption cases has become difficult," said an official.

Many other officials, however, opposed this observation. "If non-approval of rules blocks the way of inquiry and investigation, how could the commission file over 100 corruption cases after inquiry?" an ACC official argued.

Many at the ACC think that the top three officials themselves are not interested in making the commission active as they were appointed on consideration of their political affiliations.

Prof Muzaffer Ahmad, chairman of the board of trustees of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), expressed strong disappointment at the performance of the ACC. "It is their job to combat corruption. But they remained dysfunctional over the last two years," he said.

Referring to a recent television programme where the ACC chairman predicted that 50-60 percent votes would be cast in the January 22 elections and the BNP-led alliance would come to power again, Prof Muzaffer said, "If he [Justice Sultan] believes so, it becomes clear that he dares not investigate the corruption of the influential persons of the alliance."

He questioned the courage of the three top ACC officials and accused them of being politically biased. "They may have information that the BNP-led alliance has taken measures to come back to power, so they refrain from taking steps against them," Prof Muzaffer said.

The ACC chairman, however, brushed aside the allegations of political bias and their reluctance to investigate the corruption of the previous government.

"It is true that no steps have been taken yet against them, but no corrupt official, minister or leader will be spared," Justice Sultan said.

"We will definitely run an inquiry prior to launching investigation if anyone officially files any specific complaint against anyone," he added.

Two days after handover of power to the caretaker government in October last year, the ACC chairman said the commission will initiate investigations into the corruption of ministers and parliamentarians of the immediate past government.

Asked why the ACC is not launching probes on its own, he said, "This will take time."

Justice Sultan, who said he himself is not happy with the ACC performance, however, claimed that corruption has decreased "because a few people are afraid of us although they know that we do not have biting teeth".

Commenting on instances of filing cases by the erstwhile Bac, the ACC chairman said, "The cases were filed with political motivation. Since we are not politically motivated, we will not file any case with an aim to harass people."