Staff Reporter :
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has expressed anger at the reported anomalies in gold reserves in Bangladesh Bank vault and asked the governor of Bangladesh Bank and NBR official to quickly resolve the issue.
He called governor Fazle Kabir and senior NBR member Kalipad Halder to her office yesterday and expressed wonder how the secret intelligence report could become public in the media to the embarrassment of the government. NBR chairman Mosharraf Hussain is out of the country.
The reported anomalies of gold reserves at Bangladesh Bank vault is making headlines in the national dailies over the past three days inviting sharp criticism on safety system at Bangladesh Bank from many quarters. The Prime Minister is unhappy on the disclosure and lapses and listened the concerned officials’ reports trying to figure out the issue.
A senior official of Bangladesh Bank on Tuesday declined to accept the media report on the anomalies which suggest some gold bars having 22 caret value has been removed from the vault replacing by 18 caret gold. The purity of gold was 80 percent when it was put in Bangladesh Bank vault but the gold now available is 46 percent.
Bangladesh Bank however claimed it was a clerical mistake done by the gold smith firm tasked with checking the quality of gold at the time of putting the gold in the vault.
The gold smith firm has by now disowned the Bangladesh Bank claim for the clerical mistake throwing the question back how the anomalies could have happened.
Many believe a vested quarter in the Bangladesh Bank is operating. They were responsible for the US$101 million heist from its New York Federal Reserve Bank account.
The gold scandal may be their work too. In fact the security and control system within the Bangladesh Bank may have collapsed but the nation does not know what is really happening inside the bank.
