Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
The government has started the process to find a successor to Abu Hena Mohd Razee Hassan, chief of the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU), as his tenure ended on September 9 this year.
The BFIU secretariat floated advertisement in newspapers on August 30, seeking applications for the post of a BFIU chief, saying that applicants must have at least 20 years’ working experience in a government monetary and financial institution or in the central bank.
An applicant must have at least a post graduate degree from any recognised university.
The deadline for submitting the application for the post was on September 20 this year. Eighteen interested candidates have submitted their candidatures with the mission to lead the key government agency.
From them, a list of 12 eligible candidates has been short-listed. Six of the applications have been cancelled due to non-compliance of criterion, two officials close to the matter told The New Nation yesterday.
A high-powered panel under the chairmanship of Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Dr Fazle Kabir will interview the short-listed candidates to select Razee Hassan’s successor.
The candidates will be invited for face-to-face interview in the middle of October. Later, the panel will recommend three names (from the candidates) to the finance ministry, which will then pick one to lead the BFIU, said an official.
Before the end of Razee Hassan’s term, the finance ministry formed the five-member panel to start the process of appointing a new BFIU chief.
On 23 January 2012, the government appointed Abu Hena Mohd Razee Hassan as the chief of BFIU in addition to his charge as deputy governor. But after his retirement from the deputy governor post, he was given the charge of BFIU chief and he served the position till September 2018.
He was again appointed as the head of BFIU on a contractual basis on October 2018.
On September 8 this year, Razee Hassan did his last office as BFIU chief.
According to the Money Laundering Prevention Act, 2012, the chief of BFIU has to take the prior approval of BB Governor on all administrative matters. He will take necessary steps in consultation with the government to formulate and implement the necessary guidelines, policies to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.
The BFIU can provide information on money laundering and terrorist financing to any other government agency on request or on its own initiative as required.
