ACC still in a limbo

It has been reported that 5,050 cases that had been filed by the now defunct BAC are still sitting in limbo. Part of the problem is that it is unclear to what extent the ACC has authority to continue with these cases, and in any event it does not have the personnel to do so since the BAC prosecutors have apparently been instructed not to involve themselves with the ACC.

Almost ten months after inception, the ACC still lacks an organogram. Under the relevant act, both are the responsibility of the government, and the government's marked lack of urgency and indifference to finalising these seems to be a clear sign of the low priority placed on the matter by it.

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The ACC has even put together a draft organogram and sent it to the establishment ministry for review. The draft has since been returned to the ACC for being incomplete, but the point is that it was the ministry's duty, not the commission's, to draft the document in the first place.

The ACC has been able to take one or two isolated actions here and there, but the evident lack of necessary government input has a major stumbling block to its effectiveness. It is clear that the ACC will continue to be ineffectual until the government gives it the support that it needs, and it is equally clear that now the commission has been formed that the government has zero interest in making it functional.

The whole point of the ACC was to make it independent, in contrast to the BAC. But if the first ten months of its existence are anything to go by, it is a fair question to ask in what way the commission can be considered independent and whether the government actually has any intention of letting it so operate.