Task force formed to bring back siphoned off money

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The government formed a high-powered task force last week with Bangladesh Bank (BB) governor as its head, which will work to bring back money siphoned off by corrupt people in the past few years.

The 10-member committee will coordinate efforts by different government wings to get back the money, sources said.

“The task force is formed with members from the Chief Adviser’s Office, foreign and home ministries, Finance Division, the National Board of Revenue (NBR), the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), attorney general’s office and a senior police official,” a central bank official said.

An executive director of the BB would act as member secretary of the task force, he added.

The government formed the task force as it has been facing problems due to lack of orchestrated efforts in bringing the money, sources said.

The BB has already sent letters to ministries and offices concerned asking them to send names of representatives in the task force.

The government believes that in the past few years, corrupt people had siphoned off huge amount of money earned illegally to Malaysia, Singapore, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States and some Middle East countries.

“A couple of months ago the government had initiated work to sign a deal with the Malaysian government for bringing back the smuggled out money,” a source said.

The source said BB had sent a draft of the deal to the finance ministry for approval and subsequently the draft was sent to the law ministry for scrutiny.

“Law ministry sent back the draft asking clarification from the finance ministry on who will sign the deal, BB or the government,” the source said adding that the government had been facing such complexities in its efforts to get back the siphoned off money.

During his recent visit to London, Army Chief Gen Moeen U Ahmed told the local press that the caretaker government has already brought back $129 million that had been siphoned off and another $72 million is being brought back. He was also positive about getting back $240 million more.

Sources said the government is also working on a World Bank (WB) proposal made a few months back in which the WB offered cooperation to the government in getting back siphoned off money.

On his return from the USA, BB Governor Salehuddin Ahmed on Friday said that they had negotiations with the WB and it would provide assistance if Bangladesh government takes legal steps for getting back the money. “If anybody is convicted by the court for smuggling out money, then the WB will provide us assistance,” he said.

They had similar negotiations with the USA, the central bank governor added.

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