Finance minister AMA Muhith said on Thursday that the report of the external experts panel of the World Bank (WB) is objective but incomplete.
“I have gone through the WB’s final report. I will send my reply on Monday,” he told reporters at the Secretariat. He, however, did not elaborate on the contents of the 11-page report. “I have seen their recommendations and I will urge the WB to publish my reply along with their post on the website,” he noted.
He further said that the WB has objected to the Anti-Corruption Commission’s (ACC’s) non-inclusion of the name of the former communications minister, Syed Abul Hossain, in its report.
Replying to a question about corruption in the banking sector, Muhith said “pure theft” is taking place in the management system of banks. He made this comment in the context of the Hall-Mark scam. The people behind the scandal must be brought to justice, the minister added. He, however, said that he was not sure if those involved would be punished.
The minister was speaking at a programme where Sonali Bank UK Limited handed over £400,000 to the government on account of its profit made in 2012.
The Country Director of the WB, Johannes Zutt, handed over the final investigation report on the Padma bridge scam to the finance minister on Tuesday. On that day, the minister had said that he would talk about it in Parliament.
The WB had inked a USD 1.2 billion deal for the USD 2.9 billion Padma bridge with Bangladesh. But they cancelled it after allegations of bribery came to light. A three-member World Bank external panel, led by Luis Gabriel Moreno Ocampo, visited Dhaka twice last year to check on leads and gather evidence. The panel sat twice with ACC officials last December. In January, following persisting differences, the Government of Bangladesh decided to go ahead with the project without the Washington-based global lender. A case, filed by the ACC, is currently being investigated. It accused seven people, including former Bridges Division secretary Mohammad Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan. But former communications minister Syed Abul Hossain or former foreign state minister Abul Hassan Chowdhury were left out.
-With The Independent input
