Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Chairman Iqbal Mahmud has warned the candidates of the upcoming parliamentary polls not to give wrong information about their wealth in the affidavit to avert legal action.
To ensure transparency and accountability, he said, the national anti-graft watchdog will scrutinise information in the affidavit to be provided to the Election Commission (EC) by the candidates after the national polls.
The ACC chairman issues the warning on Monday while talking to the reporters at his office in the capital.
"We'll take legal action if anyone (candidate) provides false information or conceal information about their wealth in the affidavit," he said.
Terming corruption a 'serious problem' for the country, the ACC chief said the commission firmly believes that the candidates will give correct information in the affidavit and people will not cast vote for any corrupt person in the general polls.
"We will try to bring a corrupt candidate to justice if he or she is elected as per the law. We'll make public the names of the candidates having wealth beyond known sources of income," he said.
Asked whether the ACC will make any recommendation to the EC for not allowing corrupt individuals in the polls, he said they won't do so as any person can contest the election in accordance with the RPO (Representation of the People Order).
"We're not working taking the election alone into consideration. Our job is to net the corrupt people and we will keep doing so," he said with an assurance that the commission will do nothing in a self-motivated way.
Responding to a question, he said the chairman of NBR (National Board of Revenue) should make sensible comment on anything.
"I never claim that there is no corruption in the ACC, but we took immediate action whenever we got information on graft," he said.
The ACC recently submitted a report to the cabinet secretary identifying 13 sources of corruption and recommendations. Some of corruption sources were linked with the NBR.
Following submission of the report, NBR chairman Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan reacted strongly saying that corruption will also be found in the ACC if neutral investigation is conducted.
