----- Public Servants Receiving TAC Mercy: Should There Be Further Action ?
National press and electronic media has reported that the law minister, Shafique Ahmed, on Tuesday said the public servants admitted to their corruption to the now-defunct Truth and Accountability Commission and were pardoned must face departmental proceedings. ‘The people who had admitted to corruption in exchange for mercy from the Truth and Accountability Commission during the caretaker government should not be allowed to continue in government service,’ Shafique, also a lawyer, said in reply to questions of reporters in the ministry.
He said disciplinary actions should be taken against the officials and employees who admitted to being corrupt. The government should stop providing any such people who have already retired with retirement benefits, he said. No corrupt officials or employees would be allowed to remain in government service, Shafiq, a technocrat minister, said when his attention was called to a newspaper report which said the officials who admitted to being corrupt were allowed to continue in their service. ‘The authorities concerned will be asked to form a committee to investigate the individual cases on corruption charges,’ he said, adding departmental action would be taken against the people who had admitted to being corrupt and received clemency from the truth commission as criminal charges could not be framed against them. The commission awarded certificates of clemency to 452 people. Three hundred and fifty-one of them were government employees, 25 were businessmen and two were politicians. Most of the officials and employees are from the Roads and Highway Department, Titas Gas, Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (formerly BTTB), forest department and the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority.The communications minister, Syed Abul Hossain, on Tuesday directed the secretary of the ministry to initiate departmental proceedings against the officials and employees of the ministry who admitted to their corruption in exchange for mercy. The immediate-past military-controlled interim government instituted the commission, inviting the people to receive clemency, voluntarily admitting to their corruption not to face any criminal proceedings. The commission had been in existence for five months and it served out its tenure in November in line with the provision of the ordinance which the then government promulgated. The legality of the commission was also challenged in court.
We ask the government to be very careful in the matter. There is a serious moral question involved as they were pardoned. These people went to the Commission on the understanding that if they disclose and return the ill-gotten money, they will get mercy and they can start life afresh in a clean manner. The government can not renegade from the commitment of its own established Truth And Accountability Commission or just find out a route to avoid the commitment given. In the long term it will create a credibility problem for the government. We feel no new action should be taken against them and action should be taken only if they commit further corruption.
__._,_.___
