The conviction rate in corruption cases filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) increased slightly in 11 months from January to November in 2019 compared to the corresponding period of the previous year.
The conviction rate in graft cases lodged by the anti-graft watchdog showed a decline in 2018 after a registering an upward trend in the three preceding years.
ACC data showed the conviction rate increased by 1.08 per cent to 64.01 per cent during the January-November period of the last year from 62.93 per cent during the same period of 2018.
The punishment rate came down to 60.64 per cent in 2018 from 67.93 per cent in 2017.
It was 54.20 per cent in 2016 and 37 per cent in 2015, according to ACC sources.
A total of 2,829 graft cases were under trial while 256 cases were stayed by the High Court (HC) and 169 people were penalised in the first eleven months of the last year.
Besides, 95 people were acquitted and 264 cases disposed of during the same period, the ACC data presented.
On the other hand, 2,790 cases were under trial, 307 cases were stayed by the HC and 129 people were punished from January to November in 2018.
Apart from this, 76 people were acquitted and 205 cases settled during the same time.
ACC's senior prosecutor Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan said the ACC is giving high importance to every single case and is trying to place credible evidence in related suits before the courts so that no real offenders can go unpunished.
The conviction rate increased due to speedy trial proceedings.
"As the trial courts got credible evidence against the accused, the rate of conviction showed an upward trend," he told the FE.
The High Court also disposed of a good number of cases which were stayed earlier that may be another reason, Mr Khan added.
Emphasis is being laid on enhancing expertise and efficiency of the ACC prosecutors and investigators to this end, the Supreme Court lawyer said.
On occasion of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's birth centenary, the ACC is committed and will try its level best to increase the conviction rate by 100 per cent, the senior prosecutor added.
In February last year, ACC chairman Iqbal Mahmood said relentless efforts were being made to enhance the efficiency of investigation officers and prosecution with giving them necessary training at home and abroad as 'it is closely interrelated with trial proceedings'.
Talking to the FE, Dr Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), said it will be hard to make any decisive assessment of implications of such increase, which may be attributed to more than one factor.
"While it may represent an outcome of ACC's recent visible efforts to be more active and efficient to deliver its mandate, it may also be due to realisation on the part of the commission that public expectation about its effectiveness is becoming increasingly higher which is in turn at least partly caused by the depth and breadth of corruption as brought up by media and other reports throughout the year," he said.
But perhaps more importantly, this may reflect a greater level of motivation thanks to the head of the government's zero tolerance pledge repeated several times throughout the year followed by a much-hyped anti-corruption drive with her avowed blessing including the declaration that no one should be spared irrespective of political identity, Dr Iftekharuzzaman said.
In any case, more than the simple increase in the numbers it will be worthwhile to observe the extent to which the lodged cases will eventually ensure accountability of the alleged and the extent to which the ACC succeeds in bringing to justice the proverbial big fish, he added.
