It is believed that Bangladesh was being robbed of $16 billion of its money annually during the 15-year rule of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajid, according to the results of an investigation committee formed by the country’s interim Prime Minister Muhammad Yunus.
Bloomberg News reported that the committee, led by economist Debapriya Bhattacharya, presented to Yunus in Dhaka, on Sunday, a “white paper” on the state of the economy in Bangladesh, according to what was stated in a government statement.
It is worth noting that student protesters overthrew Sheikh Hasina last August, after 15 years of rule.
Younis said in the statement, “Our blood freezes when we know how they plundered the economy… The sad part is that they plundered the economy openly, and most of us were unable to muster the courage to confront that.”
The army and protest leaders appointed Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who pioneered small loans to the poor, to lead an interim government.
He said the document shows “the economy we inherited after the popular uprising in July and August.”
Sheikh Hasina’s party leaders are in prison or hiding in Bangladesh, or have left the country. The party does not have an official spokesperson who can be contacted to comment on the allegations contained in the white paper.
As part of its investigations, the committee looked into 7 large projects out of 29, each of which had expenditures of more than 100 billion taka ($836 million).
The initial cost of the seven projects examined was estimated at 1.14 trillion taka ($10 billion). Hasina’s government later revised the project costs to 1.95 trillion taka ($16.5 billion) by adding more components and inflating land prices among other things, according to the statement.
“The problem is deeper than we thought,” Bhattacharya said, adding that the 400-page white paper will show “how crony capitalism gave birth to the few who controlled policy formulation.”
Money back
Last October, Bangladesh Central Bank Governor Ahsan Mansoor accused businessmen linked to the ousted regime of Sheikh Hasina of working with members of the country’s powerful military intelligence agency to steal $17 billion from the banking sector during her rule.
He added that about two trillion taka ($16.7 billion) were taken out of Bangladesh after banks’ funds were seized through methods such as loans to their new shareholders and large import invoices.
The interim government repeatedly pledged to recover funds embezzled by members of the former regime and their collaborators.
Mansour, a former International Monetary Fund official, said he had sought Britain’s help to investigate the fortunes of Sheikh Hasina’s allies abroad, and that board members of leading banks had been targeted under her rule.
