The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is moving forward aiming at upgrading its organisational structure through amendments of its laws, said official sources in the ACC.

According to sources concerned, the ACC has taken the initiatives with a view to raising the number of commissioners, make scope for their reappointment and declare its staff public servants so that they can avail themselves of the facilities government officials enjoy.

In this regard, a nine-member committee led by ACC secretary Md Dilwar Bakth has already been formed.

Talking to Bangladesh Post on Tuesday, ACC Chairman Iqbal Mahmood said since there are some anti-organisational matters in the existing laws, the ACC has initiated to make changes in those issues.

“It should not be termed as amendment to the ACC laws, as we want to make some changes in ACC’s organisational structure,” said ACC Chairman Iqbal Mahmood.

Iqbal Mahmood further said, “The move is now at the very initial stage. A committee has been formed and it is working on it.”

He added as saying that there are shortages in the number of investigators and other officials like commissioners.

“We think this number should be increased,” he said.

Meanwhile, the nine-member committee led by ACC secretary Md Dilwar Bakth already held a virtual meeting in this regard recently. At the meeting, the committee has proposed that the amendment should mention ACC employees as public servants so that they too would be entitled to similar facilities.

Some ACC officials said that there was a move to introduce a change to the clauses regarding commissioner’s appointment in which an option of reappointment would be included as the law currently did not allow the reappointment of any commissioner.

Under the existing law, the president appoints three commissioners for the commission and assigns one of them as chairman for a five-year tenure.

They said that an increase in the number of commissioners might also be proposed, raising it to five from three, as at a recent meeting the commission chairman Iqbal Mahmood said that more commissioners were needed as works and wings of the commission had already expanded.

The existing law prohibits the appointment of commissioners at any profitable government position after the end of their tenure.

The tenure of incumbent chairman Iqbal Mahmood will end in March 2021 as he joined in March 2016.

A member of the committee said that the commission has taken a move to amend the law that governs it, especially to incorporate provisions for more facilities for its employees.

He said that the initiative was taken after some government departments refused some of its employees a number of facilities public servants are entitled to.

The applications placed by some ACC employees for the facilities have been rejected by the departments on the grounds that the commission is an independent body which appoints its employees and the ACC law does not mention that its employees are public servants, he said.

Earlier on November 1, responding to a query from the Cabinet Division, the ACC secretary sent a letter to the government asking for retirement benefits and medical facilities for the families of its chairman and two commissioners, which the judges of the Supreme Court are entitled to.

The ACC put forward the demand on the grounds that the ranks of its chairman and commissioners were equivalent to those of the Appellate Division and High Court Division judges.

At present, the ACC chairman and a commissioner are retired secretaries while another commissioner is a retired district judge.