Special Correspondent :
The security and oversight function of the Central Bank has come under question again following the allegation of gold stock anomalies in its highly secured vault kept by Customs Department.
Only two years back, US$ 101 million heist from Bangladesh Bank’s New York Federal Bank accounts had similarly shocked the nation.
Reports said metal mixed gold bars were found in the vault this time which were earlier deposited as pure gold. The percentage of gold now stands at 46 percent in verification instead of 80 percent when these were deposited.
Commenting on the issue, former Bangladesh Bank (BB) Deputy Governor Dr Khandaker Ibrahim Khaled told The New Nation that the management and oversight of the central appears to have shattered otherwise such unexpected incidents could not happen.
“No doubt something is happening in the Central Bank, which needs to be investigated from the highest level of the state. A judicial inquiry could be launched to look into the incidents in the Central Bank,” he added.
Dr Khandaker Ibrahim Khaled, however, claimed that such incidents could not happen without insiders’ involvement.
Earlier, unidentified hackers were able to break the IT security systems of the Central Bank to issue false payment orders of US$101 million from its account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York breaking the SWIFT message code for such transfer in 2016. It is seen as the biggest cyber theft in the global banking history and the latest gold incident once again shows the Central Bank remains as vulnerable as before.
Nearly two years later, there is no word on who was responsible in and outside Bangladesh Bank for the money heist as the government investigation report remained shielded for reasons not clear to the nation. It was alleged that a group of Bangladesh Bank officials including a senior official who wield huge power in the establishment and publicly visible may have relation to such repeated incidents.
“The alleged incident of gold adulteration highlighted security and oversight lapses in the Central Bank,” Dr Khandaker Ibrahim Khaled said adding the security deployments and supervision in the Central Bank should be immediately overhauled to avert further untoward incident.
The Central Bank officials at a press conference on Tuesday refuted the allegation of gold adulteration saying it was a ‘clerical’ mistake without explaining how clerical or technical mistakes have beset the Central Bank one after another without improving the situation.
The Chief of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID) Dr Md Shahidul Islam told The New Nation that they have sent a detailed report on the issue to the Central Bank.
“We will come up with an official statement on receiving request from Bangladesh Bank to clear the matter,” he added.
