Finance minister AMA Muhith has finally asked the banks and financial institutions division to come up with proposals aimed at plugging the loopholes in unprecedented swindling of funds from the state-owned banks, officials said. He gave the directive during a meeting on Sunday afternoon with the secretaries under his ministry. All four secretaries except the secretary of the economic relations division were present.
Banks and financial institutions division that is mainly responsible for policy-making affairs of the state-owned commercial banks, specialised banks and securities and exchange commission was asked to submit the proposals as early as possible.
Muhith took the decision after a series of scams including share market collapse in 2010 and misappropriation of several thousand crore Takas from Sonali Bank Limited and the BASIC Bank in 2012 and 2013 prompted a lot of criticisms of the present government.
Bank and financial institutions division secretary M Aslam Alam made a presentation on the state-owned banks and other institutions during the meeting.
He told the meeting that the government should fix new criteria for appointment of directors in the state-owned banks to avoid the repeated scams in the banks. At present, political consideration played the key role in appointing directors of the banks’ boards, he said.
Muhith had blamed the politically appointed directors for the scams in the SoBs.
BB in a report to the ministry of finance last month noted that the BASIC board of directors could not avoid their responsibility for the bank’s huge defaulted loans caused due to loan scam worth more than Tk 3,500 crore.
BB had urged the ministry of finance to dissolve the BASIC Bank board of directors.
But the ministry of finance is yet to take any action against the BASIC Bank board of directors because of political reasons.
Muhith had also hinted at reforms in other areas like public procurement law, budget implementation and budget preparation process during the meeting, said the officials.
He suggested that financial power of the ministries and divisions should be increased from the existing Tk 25 crore.
A follow-up meeting in this connection will be held in August, they said.
-With New Age input
