‘ACC can’t keep up with rampant graft’

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is having a hard time keeping up with the rampant corruption taking place in the country, said it’s Chairman Iqbal Mahmood today.

Pointing to the recent graft index of Transparency International, where Bangladesh made a marginal improvement, the ACC chief said “there is little scope for satisfaction” in it.

“We need coordinated efforts to curb corruption,” he said in a press briefing at his office, at the anti-graft watchdog’s headquarters located in Dhaka’s Segunbagicha.

Bangladesh has moved two notches up in the global Corruption Perceptions Index of 2017, but the scale of corruption in the country remains alarming, according to Transparency International.

Among the 180 countries surveyed, Bangladesh ranked 143rd (17th from bottom), securing 28 points out of 100. The global average score is 43.

In 2016, Bangladesh stood 145th among the 176 countries surveyed.

The Transparency International, Bangladesh (TIB), the Bangladesh chapter of the Berlin-based graft watchdog, shared the findings of the global survey at a press conference at its office in the capital's Dhanmondi on Thursday.