Five-month leadership vacuum paralyses ACC as about 500 cases await approval

Bangladesh’s anti-corruption agency has been effectively paralysed for five months, leaving about 500 cases awaiting approval and stalling investigations into some of the country’s most powerful former politicians and business groups.

The leadership vacuum at the Anti-Corruption Commission has interrupted what officials describe as the biggest anti-graft drive in the agency’s history, launched after the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government in August 2024.

Nearly 5,000 complaints have accumulated at the ACC during the five months without a commission, according to an agency source. The watchdog cannot approve new investigations or cases, submit charge sheets or seek court orders preventing suspects from leaving Bangladesh without approval from its commissioners.

Among the investigations caught in the backlog is that of Saifuzzaman Chowdhury Javed, the former land minister.

The ACC began investigating Saifuzzaman in December 2024 and filed 30 cases against him by February this year, submitting charge sheets in two. An official involved in the investigation told Daily Waadaa that about 20 further cases were awaiting commission approval.

The pipeline stopped after the ACC’s chairman and two commissioners resigned in the first week of March.

The disruption extends far beyond Saifuzzaman Chowdhury cases. Following the collapse of the Awami League government, the ACC opened inquiries and investigations into more than 500 influential former ministers, MPs, businesspeople, law enforcement officials and bureaucrats linked to the previous administration.

More than 1,000 cases were filed over the following 18 months, according to ACC sources. But no new case or inquiry has been initiated since the commission became vacant.

The bottleneck illustrates the unusually central role of the three-member commission in Bangladesh’s anti-corruption machinery. Investigators can continue some existing work, but decisions to open inquiries, approve cases and charge sheets or seek travel restrictions require the commission’s consent.

“Without the commission, the ACC is effectively paralysed,” an official at deputy director level told Daily Waadaa on condition of anonymity.

“Over the past year and a half, the ACC carried out the biggest anti-corruption drive in its history. It filed a record number of cases and charge sheets and seized a record amount of assets,” the official said.

“Even steps such as asking courts to impose travel bans on accused individuals cannot be taken because there is no commission. This creates a risk that the accused could go into hiding or leave the country.”

The paralysis marks a sharp reversal for an agency whose workload surged after Hasina’s removal.

A three-member commission led by Mohammad Abdul Momen was appointed on December 10, 2024. The ACC subsequently accelerated investigations into alleged corruption under the previous government.

The agency opened 845 inquiries in 2023. That rose to 1,894 in 2024 and 2,538 in 2025. The number of cases increased from 404 in 2023 to 451 in 2024 and 874 in 2025.

The value of assets seized and frozen increased even more dramatically. The ACC froze or seized assets worth 30,352.75 crore taka in 2025, compared with 361.45 crore taka in 2024, 415.43 crore taka in 2023 and 810.71 crore taka in 2022.

The commission had also established 11 joint task forces to investigate allegations of money laundering and illicit wealth involving Hasina and her family and 10 of Bangladesh’s largest industrial groups.

Twenty-one cases have been filed against the former prime minister and members of her family, with charge sheets submitted in seven, according to ACC sources.

The agency has filed 27 cases against S Alam Group, four of which have reached the charge-sheet stage. Another five to seven are awaiting approval.

Twelve cases have been filed against Beximco Group, while about 14 to 15 more await approval.

The ACC has also filed 16 cases against HBM Iqbal and Premier Group, nine against Sikder Group, four against Nassa Group, three against Nabil Group, two each against Bashundhara Group and Orion Group, and one against Summit Group.

Investigations involving more than 100 former MPs and ministers, alongside businesspeople, police and other law enforcement personnel and civil servants, have also slowed or stalled.

The vacuum has raised questions over the BNP government’s commitment to the anti-corruption agenda it championed before taking power.

Ifthekharuzzaman, executive director of Transparency International Bangladesh and former head of the ACC Reform Commission, said the government itself had created the circumstances that led to the resignation of the chairman and commissioners.

“The government is also well aware that the commission must be reconstituted within 30 days. Despite knowing this, the government has deliberately kept the ACC paralysed,” he told Waadaa.

Ifthekharuzzaman said the government’s record contrasted with the anti-corruption commitments contained in the BNP’s 31-point election manifesto and other pledges.

“The ACC has been rendered ineffective. As a result, those who engaged in corruption in the past, as well as those who continue to do so, are effectively receiving protection or an advantage,” he said.

Keeping the watchdog unable to function sent a stark signal, he added: “The ACC is ineffective, so go ahead and engage in corruption. A licence to engage in corruption is being handed out.”

“Another message is also being sent — that corruption is normal, so why do we even need an institution to deal with it?”

Maidul Islam, a former ACC director general, also questioned why the government had taken so long to restore the commission.

He said the resignation of all three commissioners, officially for personal reasons, had been unexpected, particularly because the commission was pursuing investigations into influential figures accused of large-scale corruption.

A selection committee was supposed to be established within 30 days, Islam said, but was not formed until June, three months after the commissioners resigned.

“Five months have now passed and the ACC has been unable to function,” he told Waadaa. “This means the ACC is simply not on the government’s list of top priorities.”

“This is benefiting those who engaged in corruption in the past as well as those who are still engaging in corruption.”

The government moved on June 22 to establish a five-member search committee headed by Appellate Division Justice Md Rezaul Haque to select candidates for a new commission.

Its other members are High Court Division Justice Razik-Al-Jalil, Comptroller and Auditor General Md Nurul Islam, Public Service Commission chairman Mobasser Monem and Cabinet Secretary Nasimul Gani.

The search process is now approaching completion, according to a person familiar with the matter.

ACC secretary Md Saidur Rahman Khan said on August 2 that the committee’s work was almost finished and that a new commission would be appointed once the government completed the necessary procedures.

He said he expected a full commission to take office soon.

Until then, investigators who spent the previous 18 months building cases against some of Bangladesh’s most powerful political and corporate figures remain able to investigate, but unable to turn much of that work into formal action.

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