Staff Reporter :A Parliamentary watchdog has asked Bangladesh Bank [BB] to know the reason behind the ‘reluctant mood’ of Anti-Corruption Commission [ACC] about taking legal action against the corrupt board of directors of BASIC Bank Limited.Expressing discontent, the JS body also said though the ACC was asked to conduct an investigation against the board members of the bank for their alleged involvement in big financial corruption, it did not do it till the date.The above allegations against the ACC were raised in the 9th meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Undertakings held at Parliament Bhaban on Thursday.Presided over by Committee Chairman Shawkat Ali MP, the meeting was also attended by other committee members including Abdul Quddus MP and Mohibur Rahman Manik MP. Officials concerned including BB governor, Secretary of Bank and Financial Institutions and BASIC Bank chairman were also present in the meeting.The JS body yesterday thoroughly discussed the probe report that was prepared on the recent financial irregularities of the BASIC Bank, and asked the concerned authority to ensure punitive punishment to the corrupt directors.At the same time, the Parliamentary watchdog asked the BB to ensure the appointment of honest, efficient and professional persons in the Board of Directors at all state-owned and private-run commercial banks. Official sources said the JS body in its 4th meeting held on July 10 had suggested the government to take punitive actions following investigations against all those involved in the financial scam in BASIC Bank.It also recommended the newly appointed BASIC Bank Board of Directors to investigate all the financial anomalies in the state-owned bank and submit the probe report to the committee. Earlier on May 25, the central bank removed BASIC Bank Managing Director [MD] Kazi Faqrul Islam on charge of irregularities and corruption. He was accused of financial irregularities while disbursing loans violating the BB’s directives, the sources said. In fact, the irregularities in the bank came to the fore early last year when BB inspections found that the bank approved loans of Tk 4500 crore, mostly without proper documentation and scrutiny. Most of the irregularities took place in BASIC Bank’s four branches – Motijheel, Shantinagar, Dilkusha and Gulshan – that granted the loans between December 2009 and November 2012 on poor documents and inflated mortgages to nonexistent companies. The bank promptly approved the loans to clients after they had opened accounts.It was also alleged that the Board of Directors acted in complicity with dishonest business houses which produced loan request under different projects or import financing bills and the money was disbursed to parties accordingly.The Board approval was reportedly given to loan seekers ignoring the alert of the bank branch officials and also bypassing the cautions against such loans by the BB authorities. The branch offices of the bank also informed the BB of the complicities in approving the loan by the Board of Directors. In this backdrop, the ACC launched an inquiry into the alleged embezzlement of that money. But it was slowed down suddenly on the mid-way by intervention from powerful quarters, according to the sources.
