**1. Introduction**

*"Corruption has seeped into all levels of society. No government can prevent such corruption. The masses and students will put an end to corruption; the young people and peasants must take action to prevent corruption. Otherwise, we have to wage a war against corruption."*

 *-On 17 February 1974, at the reunion of the Bangladesh Chhatra League in Dhaka, [1] (Bangladesh Betar).*

Bangladesh is a developing country (with a GDP of over \$409 billion) that has the world's 37th largest economy and forecasts suggest that the scale of the economy could double by 2030 [2]. It has distorted itself from an economic "basket case" into one among the world's fastest-growing economies. In spite of development in

Bangladesh, corruption also exist in all aspects. Despite efforts, corruption is pervasive in Bangladesh. Despite the administration's rhetoric condemning corruption at all levels, reports continue to surface of prominent political figures being implicated in a wide range of scandals involving allegations of wrongdoing. Given the preexisting state of corruption and poor management in Bangladesh's health care system, the COVID-19 pandemic has only increased the pressure on this sector [3]. However, public sector departments in Bangladesh are the most corrupt due to bribery, rentseeking, misuse of public funds, excessive lobbying, delays in service delivery, theft, recklessness on the part of government officials, and bureaucratic excess [4, 5].

To combat the corruption, Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) plays vital role investigating the cases all over the country. The ACC is a constitutional independent body. Currently, according to ACC [6], this government organization employs a total of 978 people. There are a total of 248 officials, including deputy directors, assistant directors, and sub-assistant directors, who are involved in the investigation process. Also, 230 of the 248 officials are employed directly by the ACC. The remaining 18 ACC employees are deputized from other government agencies, such as the White House. The ACC received 21,371 allegations in 2019 but only recommended 1710 for investigation. The remaining 19,661 allegations were not forwarded. Of the 16,606 allegations submitted to the ACC in 2018, only 1265 were approved for investigations. In 2017, the commission accepted 937 allegations into cognizance out of a whopping total of 17,983 [6]. In 2020 and 2021, the ACC received a combined total of 113,773 calls to its Hotline-106, of which 2449 were found to be credible allegations requiring further investigation. Additionally, the commission received 232 graft allegations from the media via email and social media, and 213 from the media via electronic and print outlets. There were a total of 732 anti-graft drives conducted by the commission, 487 in 2020, and 245 in 2021 [7, 8]. However, in 2019, the percentage of ACC cases where punishment was handed down rose to 63%, from 37% in 2015.

Nonetheless, the corruption and ACC are the two opposite entities in society. Where there is corruption, there is ACC to take action against it. Bangladesh is witnessed some cases of corruption in recent days, but the role of ACC is also proactive though it has some limitations. This study would focus on the recent scenarios of corruption and the role of ACC as a whole.

### **2. Theoretical framework**

Corruption can be analyzed by different theories in sociological perspectives. Different factors are responsible for the prevailing corruption in Bangladesh. Corruption = (Monopoly + Discretion) – (Accountability + Transparency + Integrity). This suggests that corruption arises when ATI is lacking (as a result of poor governance), in addition to monopoly and discretion. From now on, corrupt behavior is usually the result of poor leadership. Some aspects of government activity, as mentioned by Vito Tanzi, provide a favorable environment for corruption [9]. Corruption, he argues, has both direct and indirect causes. Direct causes include things like complicated regulations and authorizations, taxation, spending decisions, and party financing, while indirect causes include things like the quality of the bureaucracy, the level of public sector wages, the severity of penalties, institutional controls, and the transparency of rules, laws, and processes. However, this study is concentrated on two theoretical perspectives to relate the scenarios of corruption in Bangladesh, which are illustrated below.
