Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Iqbal Mahmood on Tuesday expressed his disappointment at the performance of his officials, saying they have failed to execute their knowledge and techniques acquired from trainings in their work.

"Many of our officials have been trained at home and abroad as per the capability of the Commission. Theoretically, there might have been an increase in the capacity but we don’t think that it’s fully implemented," he said.  

The ACC chief was inaugurating a training titled ‘Training on Public Procurement and Practices for ACC Officials" at the ACC headquarters.

"The purpose of the training is to apply theoretical and practical knowledge to a particular case. If we can’t ensure it, the purpose of the training will go in vain. The human resource capacity of the organisation doesn’t increase exponentially. To be more precise, it’s the waste of money and valuable hours. So, I'm a bit disappointed," he said. 

Iqbal asked the director general of the ACC Training Division to submit a confidential report from this training session. "This report will record the overall performance of the officers, including their willingness to know and integrity, during the training. It must be presented to the Commission through the Secretary. This will be considered during the promotion of officers.”

Mentioning that the Commission received many complaints about irregularities in the procurement process, prolongation of the project and the extension of the allocation, he asked the ACC officials to be acquainted with the public procurement laws and regulations properly. "You’ve to be careful so that no-one is harassed for lack of your knowledge about the laws.”

The ACC chairman warned them against abusing the power, saying the law is equally applicable for everyone.

He said it is difficult to ensure transparency and accountability if business processes are not re-engineered. “All problems can’t be solved through mere litigations.”

ACC Secretary Muhammad Dilwar Bakht, Director General of the Central Procurement Technical unit Ali Noor, Director General of ACC Training Division AKM Sohail and Director of CPTU Shish Haider Prakash Chowdhury, among others, spoke at the inaugural ceremony.

Forty officers of the rank of commissioner, director and deputy director are participating in the training which will end on December 1.