NEWS reports in an English daily said two sacked senior officials of scam-hit BASIC Bank have allegedly bought real estates in Malaysia under ‘Malaysia My Second Home’ programme. The disclosure has been made by Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) sources saying, they have received the complaint about it. As we know buying of real estates by ill-gotten money from Bangladesh in Malaysian by corrupt government officials is an open secret; what the ACC said is not anything new. They were expected to open prosecution against the persons involved in moving the ill-gotten money out of the country, but they have so far failed to prove their worth. The question is what the government has so far done to stop the laundering of state-owned banks and punish the people, specially the board members who were political nominees of the government and played important role in swindling not only the BASIC Bank but also some other state-owned banks.
The ACC said they have got initial information about BASIC Bank money to have bought apartments in Malaysia plundered from the state-owned bank from 2010 to 2014 involving over Tk 4,500 crore so far. It is widely alleged that BASIC Bank’s former chairman from 2009 to 2014 Abdul Hye Bachchu was mainly instrumental in sanctioning loans to fake businesses and himself made enormous illegal wealth along with many other senior bank officials who worked as a syndicate to launder the bank.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith said he has evidence now that former chairman Abdul Hye Bachchu was involved in non-banking activities meaning that he was involved in swindling and the government may open cases now against him basing on such claim as evidence. But it is not anything new either, because media reports were flashing out his involvement in false loan cases over all these years. But the Finance Minister did not pay heed to it until the state-owned bank was almost ruined. Mr Muhith was under pressure on many occasions to remove the former chairman to save the bank but he continued in his post over five years which were enough to make the bank empty. The new board of BASIC Bank reconstituted last year has so far dismissed 18 officers, besides suspending 14 others. But bigwigs including the former chairman remained untouched. Money launderers of Sonali Bank and some other major banks also remained untouched except some mid-level officers.
It is not important to ask what the Ministry of Finance or the State Bank has done to stop plundering of public money. Referring a case to the Anti-Corruption Commission selectively is not the way to run a ministry efficiently or fight corruption. The court cases are not easy to prove and our corruption filled state machinery often means allowing others in the process to be benefited from corruption cases.
