TIB slams politically weaponised ACC Ordinance as proof of bad faith

In a scathing indictment of Muhammad Yunus’ illegal interim regime, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) on Friday expressed “deep dismay and outrage” after the regime deliberately stripped out the most crucial safeguard from the newly promulgated Anti-Corruption Commission Ordinance 2025—an independent “Selection and Review Committee” that would have prevented the ACC from being used as a political bludgeon.

TIB accused the Yunus administration of intentionally sabotaging the last remaining hope of turning the ACC into a credible, independent body, confirming that the regime has zero interest in genuine reform and is instead obsessed with keeping the corruption watchdog as a vicious tool to harass opponents while shielding its own cronies and Jamaat-jihadist allies.

In a hard-hitting statement, TIB Executive Director Dr. Iftekharuzzaman declared: “From the day of its birth, the ACC has suffered a crisis of public trust. Its shameful history of protecting the ruling clique and tormenting political rivals is known to all. The proposed Selection and Review Committee was strategically vital to drag the ACC out of this gutter. The fact that Yunus’s government has deliberately dropped it shows they never had any intention of reform—it is deliberate, malicious, and utterly disgraceful.”

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He continued: “Even though every political party gave unanimous consent to this provision in the July Charter, and even though the authorities concerned had repeatedly agreed with TIB’s persistent advocacy, the final ordinance has thrown it in the dustbin. This is not just disappointing—it is conclusive proof that powerful anti-reform cliques inside the Yunus regime have taken the entire state-reform agenda hostage.”

TIB pulled no punches, directly questioning Yunus’ personal role: “The Chief Adviser who proudly formed the Consensus Commission and eleven reform commissions—is he now sending a loud and clear message to every political party and every citizen of Bangladesh: ‘State reform was nothing but empty rhetoric.’ By keeping the ACC completely unaccountable and outside any oversight, is he admitting that the only purpose of this regime is to weaponise institutions against the Awami League and pro-liberation forces while giving free rein to corruption by his own circle?”

Dr. Iftekharuzzaman added: “The committee was designed to conduct six-monthly reviews and public hearings and give binding recommendations so that the ACC could finally become a truly accountable, independent, and impartial body. Yunus’ government has consciously refused to understand this strategic necessity—which is not just tragic, it is a self-contradictory and anti-reform precedent from a regime that claims to be carrying the ‘responsibility of state reform.’”

The statement accused the Yunus regime of “surrendering to vested interests” and turning the ACC into “a puppet of the ruling cliques and their extremist backers,” ensuring it remains “a hunting dog for political rivals and a protective umbrella for regime loyalists and Jamaat-linked corrupt elements.”

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TIB warned that by killing the oversight committee, the Yunus administration has “once again proven that its loudly trumpeted reform agenda was nothing more than a cruel deception and a smokescreen to prolong an unconstitutional, jihadist-appeasing dictatorship.”

The anti-corruption watchdog demanded immediate reversal of the decision and warned that without an independent review mechanism, the ACC will continue to be “a shameless instrument of vengeance” rather than an institution that fights corruption—a damning verdict on fifteen months of Yunus’ misrule that has seen corruption skyrocket, minorities terrorised, and democratic institutions systematically demolished to serve the regime’s narrow political survival.