Defaulted loans stood at Tk 22,644 crore at the end of 2011, which was 6.12% of the total disbursed loan until then. At the end of September last year, the bad debt stood at Tk 65,731 crore but a year later, the figure has swollen to more than Tk 80,307 crore, as data released by the Bangladesh Bank shows. This quadrupling of bad debt in just 6 years shows the magnitude of the problem Bangladesh has had to deal with – it’s enough to make four Padma Bridges.
There are mainly seven reasons behind loan scams in the state-owned banks. These are – political appointment on Bank Boards, activities of government-supported CBA leaders, interference of officials with political affiliations, inability to face political pressure, lack of supervision, lack of competence in understanding land-related documents and faulty field survey. Policymakers are aware of these things but the issues remain unaddressed. This is creating instability in the state-run banks. The banking system is collapsing and people’s money is being looted. But leaders of the Banks’ Boards go scot-free.
The Sonali Bank scandal accused include Hall-Mark Chairman Jasmine Islam, Managing Director Tanvir Mahmud, Tusher Ahmed, the then Managing Director of Sonali Bank, Humayun Kabir, and a Union Parishad Chairman in Savar who issued fake trade license to the controversial business group. While the then Chairman of the Audit Committee of the Board of Sonali Bank in 2012 said the bank was taking actions against very senior officials including a former Managing Director, two Deputy Managing Directors, five General Managers and six Deputy General Managers, we still dont know what happened to all of them. But 32 officials were initially accused–so where are the rest.
Similarly due to political causes no chargesheets have yet to be filed against Sheikh Bachchu, Chairman of BASIC Bank and bureaucrat turned MP turned banker Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir of Farmers Bank despite their banks losses of around Tk 5000 crore during their tenures. While Fourteen BASIC Bank officials, including four Deputy Managing Directors and three General Managers, have been dismissed over the scam, why has nothing been done against Bachchu or Alamgir even though a three-member Supreme Court Bench while holding hearings in two loan scam cases expressed discontent at the ACC for not naming Bachchu and the bank’s ex-board members.
Punitive laws like the Artha Rin Adalat laws exist against loan defaulters–why do no laws exist to punish the officials for giving out loans to fictitious companies who are intent on taking the loans to become defaulters in the first place? These corrupt officials should be held the most culpable and punished the most, as they knowingly collude with the corrupt companies to give out loans against nonexistent or fictitious assets in the first place. If a bank can simply grab property simply by showing a loan is taken, why their officials can’t be punished for willfully giving out loans to firms who they know will default .Such inconsistencies must be rooted out for the banking sector to overcome its inefficiencies — which mostly exist due to a few corrupt officials.
There should be no reason why our tax-payers should continue to pay for money from their hard earned incomes which lines the pockets of the corrupt and the iniquitous.
