[🇧🇩] Corruption Watch

[Saif]

The moral argument against amnesty has to be nuanced and not absolute. It cannot be argued that black money per se is out of bounds of the formal economy. Benefit-cost analysis of taxing black money with a ceiling has to be compared with the scenario where it is kept out of the formal economy under all circumstances as a matter of policy. If the amount of money represented by the black economy is as big as even the most conservative estimate puts it, foregoing the tax revenue on this will mean a high opportunity cost that a cash strapped government can ill afford. Allied to this is the benefit of addition to investment in legal sectors. After the morality argument is taken care of satisfactorily, economic cost-benefit analysis of legalising black money should be front and centre of policy making. As of now very little by way of addressing the morality argument and pointing out the cost- benefit comparisons has been made by policy makers.

An economist of global repute while discussing morally as an ideology melded it with utility of utilitarianism and wrote: ' A society cannot exist unless its members have common feelings about what is the proper way of conducting its affairs'. (Joan Robinson, Economic Philosophy, 1963). Perhaps her words are as relevant today as they were when written.​

 

[Saif]

Whitening black money: 3 MPs slam govt for keeping the provision

Two ruling Awami League MPs and a Jatiya Party MP today in parliament criticised the government for keeping the provision of whitening the black money in the proposed budget for 2024-25 fiscal

www.thedailystar.net

Whitening black money: 3 MPs slam govt for keeping the provision

Two ruling Awami League MPs and a Jatiya Party MP today in parliament criticised the government for keeping the provision of whitening the black money in the proposed budget for 2024-25 fiscal.

They are Pran Gopal Datta from Cumilla-7, former health minister Zahid Maleque from Manikganj-1, and reserved seat JP MP Nurun Nahar Begum.

"As a taxpayer I have to pay more than 30 percent tax if I have Tk 30 lakh. But the person who did not show the money last year is legitimising that undisclosed income by paying 15 percent tax. This will make the taxpayers reluctant to pay taxes," Pran Gopal Datta said.

Datta, a physician and former VC of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, said, "We always talk about black and white money. But informal grey-money to tax evasion in the informal economy that is not taxed and cannot be controlled in any position."

He said the finance minister did not say anything about grey money in the budget speech.

"Grey-money is worse than undisclosed income. Money laundering cannot be stopped unless it is curtailed," Datta also said.

Often associated with activities such as tax evasion and money laundering, grey money refers to funds that are obtained via legal means but are not fully reported or taxed.

Zahid Maleque, also a former health minister, said they don't want the provision of whitening the black money in the proposed budget.

"We will have to curb corruption and tax rate to reduce black money," he added.

He said it is the while-collar people, not the low-income ones or industrialists who create black money.

Jatiya Party MP Nurun Nahar Begum said with the provision of whitening the black money, many criminals will be able to whiten black money in the country, besides laundering those abroad.​

 

[Saif]

Wealth accumulation: Heaps of stocks expose Matiur’s wrongdoing

NBR official Md Matiur Rahman, who has come under the scanner amid controversy over his wealth, has made a big fortune through investments in the stock market, raising questions about the means he applied in the process.

www.thedailystar.net

Wealth accumulation: Heaps of stocks expose Matiur's wrongdoing

NBR official Md Matiur Rahman, who has come under the scanner amid controversy over his wealth, has made a big fortune through investments in the stock market, raising questions about the means he applied in the process.

In a recent interview with private television ntv, Matiur, who was yesterday removed from NBR and attached to the finance ministry, admitted that he used his expertise and insights about the capital market to buy shares of ailing but potential companies to make financial gains.

In his own admission, the career tax official would sit with owners of listed companies and visit firms to identify their weakness and offer solutions for growth. In essence, he would buy company shares in their rainy days and trade them when the share value shot up.

"This gives you a good gain," he said, adding that he also offered consultancy for initial public offering (IPOs) to help companies float shares to raise money from the public.

Matiur's admissions offer vital clues as to how people with power and influence over public institutions can become a money-making machine. What happened in Matiur's case is simple yet intriguing: he entered the share market with insider information, an unlawful practice as per the capital market regulations, to mint money.

The regulation against inside trading is meant to safeguard general investors against those with privileged information who can make gains or avert losses that the general investors cannot.

The controversy over Matiur and his family's wealth comes amid ongoing investigations and public discussions about massive wealth of a number of other top current and former government officials and their family members.

An initial tally by The Daily Star shows he and his company held more than 3 crore shares of at least 10 companies – but this figure may rise.

Matiur, who also worked at Chattogram Customs and Large Taxpayer Unit (LTU), VAT, told ntv on Wednesday that he started investing in the capital market in 2008.

He also acknowledged that he made "abnormally high" money from the shares of Fortune Shoes. He bought the company's shares at Tk 8 whose face value was Tk 10, and sold them at Tk 54 each.

"I had a deal with the owner of the shoemaker to offer consultancy to bring the company to the stock market. In return, the owner gave me shares at Tk 8."

He did not respond to our calls and text messages over the last two days.

According to the Companies Act, a company can sell shares at a discount price but with approval from the High Court, and it must be shown in the company's financial reports.

However, the company did not take any approval and did not show it in the financial report of 2015-16 when it got listed. Moreover, the IPO prospectus showed that all shareholders bought shares at face value of Tk 10 each.

Under service rules, government officials cannot work as consultants to facilitate companies to be listed in the capital market. The securities rules also have no option for any individual to offer consultancy related to IPO listing.

It is the job of merchant banks with issue management licences, and there are 66 such merchant banks in Bangladesh, according to BSEC data.

The merchant banks offer their service against a fee, and cannot accept any shares from the company, according to company listing regulations of 2015.

"The issue manager is in no way connected with the issuer and does not hold any of its securities," the regulations say.

Faruq Ahmad Siddiqi, a former chairman of BSEC, said a public service-holder should not offer such consultancy. The securities rules also have no option for that.

To read the rest of the news, please click on the link above.​

 

[Saif]

Corruption, irregularities handicap BSMMU unit

The Super Specialised Hospital of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University could not become fully operational two years after its inauguration due to the...

www.newagebd.net

Corruption, irregularities handicap BSMMU unit
Rashad Ahamad 24 June, 2024, 23:59

The Super Specialised Hospital of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University could not become fully operational two years after its inauguration due to the absence of the required manpower and logistics.

The new administration of the hospital said that they had found corruption and irregularities at all stages, including in the recruitment of manpower, in the purchasing of equipment and renting of spaces to facilitate services at the specialised hospital.

On September 14, 2022, prime minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the 750-bed specialised hospital, which promised to offer medical services that remained unavailable in most other hospitals in Bangladesh.

Following the opening, the hospital's administration began offering some outdoor services, primarily doctor consultations, because other resources, such as diagnostic tests, were not available.

Most allegations of corruption and irregularities were directed at BSMMU's immediate past vice chancellor, Md Sharfuddin Ahmed, during whose tenure the hospital was constructed.

Sharfuddin denied the allegations and shifted the blame on the present administration for slowing down the process of making the hospital fully operational.

He claimed that all purchases and appointments were approved by a university syndicate committee.

'I did nothing on my own. If there were any irregularities, committee members should be held accountable,' he said.

BSMMU registrar Professor ABM Abdul Hannan said that the new administration that took charge of the medical university two months ago was trying to make the hospital functional soon.

To read the rest of the news, please click on the link above.​

 

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Process on to prepare list of loan defaulters, finance minister tells Parliament

Finance Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali on Monday said a process is going on to prepare the list of top loan defaulter persons and organisations. The minister said this in reply to a tabled query of ruling Awami League MP from reserved seat Farida Yasmin. In her question, Farida Yasmin wanted to

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Process on to prepare list of loan defaulters, finance minister tells Parliament
Published :
Jun 24, 2024 23:03

Finance Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali on Monday said a process is going on to prepare the list of top loan defaulter persons and organisations.
The minister said this in reply to a tabled query of ruling Awami League MP from reserved seat Farida Yasmin.

In her question, Farida Yasmin wanted to know the names of top 30 loan defaulter persons and organisations and how much money they have taken from banks.

In reply to another query of AL MP Nurunnabi Chowdhury from Bhola-3, the finance minister said the government and the Bangladesh Bank have taken multiple permanent and effective measures to bring discipline in all banks and financial organisations.

In his question, Chowdhury wanted to know whether the government takes any permanent and effective measures to stop loan scams in all banks and financial entities.

In reply, the finance minister said the government has taken four measures including amended the Bank Companies Act, 1991 by adding a new section (27B) for registration of wilful defaulters.

Bangladesh Bank through BRPD Circular No-06 dated: March 12, 2024 has issued guidelines to scheduled banks regarding identification and finalisation of wilful defaulters and action taken against them.

Regular inspection and monitoring activities are ongoing by the bank inspection departments (on-site and off-site) of Bangladesh Bank with the aim of bringing credit discipline to all banks and financial institutions.

By 30 June 2026, Bangladesh Bank has adopted a specific action plan to bring down the classified loan ratio of the entire banking sector to below 8 per cent and ensure corporate governance in the banking sector.

Besides, the minister also said The Finance Company Act, 2023 has been enacted by modernizing the related laws to ensure transparency and accountability of finance companies, management, systematic management, financial structure.

In order to stop the loan fraudsters of financial institutions, various preventive measures have been taken including identification of defaulting borrowers and willful defaulting borrowers following the prescribed process and taking appropriate legal action against said borrowers.

While replying to a query of AL MP M Abdul Latif from Chattogram-11, the finance minister said at present, due to the creation of investment opportunities in various public and private sectors, the depositors are directly investing in various schemes, small industries and income-generating sectors.

"As a result, not because of lack of confidence and inflation, but because of various investment projects are attractive and opportunities for direct investment have been created, the deposits of financial institutions have decreased to some extent," the minister said.

In his question, Latif wanted to know whether it is true that financial institutions lost 95,000 depositors in the last financial year 2022-23 due to lack of confidence and inflation.

In reply to a query of AL MP from Chattogram-1, Mahbubur Rahman, the finance minister informed the House that Currently there is no liquidity crisis in any bank operating in Bangladesh.

However, the minister said, high non-performing loans, capital shortages and liquidity problems exist in some banks.

In order to solve all these problems, one officer of Bangladesh Bank was engaged as an observer in the board of directors of 9 banks and as a coordinator in 7 banks.

In reply to another query of the same MP, the minister informed the House that inflation will come under control in the next financial year due to the reduction in the prices of fuel, food products and fertilisers in the global market, initiatives to maintain the food and supply situation and all the activities that are going on to protect the helpless poor people.

"Accordingly, the annual average inflation is estimated to be 6.5 per cent at the end of the fiscal year 2024-25," the minister added.

 

[Saif]

Postal officials embezzled Tk 55 crore: Palak

Postal officials have misappropriated Tk 55 crore from both people and departmental resources, said Zunaid Ahmed Palak, state minister for Posts, Telecommunications, and Information Technology today.

www.thedailystar.net

Postal officials embezzled Tk 55 crore: Palak

Zunaid Ahmed Palak. Photo: Collected/File

Postal officials have misappropriated Tk 55 crore from both people and departmental resources, said Zunaid Ahmed Palak, state minister for Posts, Telecommunications, and Information Technology today.

"We have found out that Tk 55 crore was misappropriated by postal officials nationwide, and I have already written to the ACC chairman, urging him to action," he said.

A majority of these fraudulent activities involve postal officials embezzling people's deposits without issuing official documentation for the purchase of government savings certificates.

The state minister made these remarks while speaking to reporters following a workshop jointly organised by the a2i (Aspire to Innovate) Information and Communication Technology Division, and the International Telecommunication Union at the Amari Dhaka hotel.

The minister said they recently became aware of the financial irregularities at post offices when Parul Begum, a resident of Tanore in Rajshahi, attempted suicide after failing to recover Tk 2 lakh from the local postmaster.

The postal official did not provide her with any official documents even though she bought savings certificates, he said.​

 

[Saif]

AL MPs blast corruption

Several Awami League lawmakers on Wednesday became scathingly critical of the rampant corruption in the country...

www.newagebd.net

AL MPs blast corruption
Staff Correspondent 27 June, 2024, 00:38

Several Awami League lawmakers on Wednesday became scathingly critical of the rampant corruption in the country.

Lawmaker and AL joint general secretary AFM Bahauddin Nasim on Wednesday came down heavily on the associations of various professional bodies for giving statement in favour of corrupt government officials.

He also said that by giving statement in favour of corrupt individuals these associations were taking responsibilities of the corruption on their own shoulders.

He made the remarks while speaking in the parliament on the general discussion on the proposed budget for the 2024–25 fiscal.

He also stressed finding out other corrupt government officials and urged the government bodies to act accordingly.

He said that politicians did not take action or take sides when allegations of corruption or misdeeds are raised against other politicians.

'Rather, they raised their voice to take political and legal actions. That is the greatness of honest politicians. But sometimes we see when there are corruption allegations against a particular public servant or an official of any private, semi-government organisations or law enforcement agencies, a statement is produced on behalf of the corrupt individual,' he said.

In other words, he said, the responsibility of the allegations against the particular individual is taken by those organisations.

'This responsibility falls on the entire organisation. We have to get out of this,' he said and called for initiatives to implement prime minister Sheikh Hasina's zero-tolerance policy against corruption through strict action against corrupt individuals, institutions, government or private agencies or organisations.

Nasim also stressed the importance of reducing the amount of defaulted loans through stern measures against the defaulters.

He said that loan defaulters, money launderers, looters of bank money, and those who do price hikes must be identified.

'I think it is necessary to prepare a list and present it to the nation,' he added.

The AL leader called for forming a special task force to protect people from the hands of this vicious, totalitarian, self-seeking gang.

He said that all the achievements of the country were gained under the leadership of the Awami League and politicians.

'But a cabal of usurers or foot-licking dogs of foreign masters corrupt politics and political leadership whenever they get a chance,' he blasted.

On June 21, the Bangladesh Police Service Association issued a statement condemning what it termed a 'smear campaign' orchestrated by certain media outlets against current and former members of the police force.

BPSA termed recent media reports against its retired and serving officials as 'partial, ill-motivated, sweeping and exaggerated' and also requested the media to be more cautious while publishing reports on the force.

The statement came amid legal action over allegations of accumulating huge illegal wealth by former inspector general of police Benazir Ahmed and his family based on media reports.

Recently, former Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia also made headlines over allegations of amassing illegal wealth, while expelled president of the National Board of Revenue's Customs, Excise and VAT Appellate Tribunal Matiur Rahman was transferred to the Internal Resources Division of the finance ministry following a recent controversy over his wealth.

The controversy regarding Matiur's wealth surfaced after his son Mushfiqur Rahman Ifat posted a photo of a sacrificial goat on social media and claimed to have bought it for Tk 12 lakh.

This raised questions about his father's income at this grade (grade-1) with a basic monthly salary of Tk 78,000.

Later, Ifat's photos with cars of different brands surfaced on social media and information on Matiur's huge wealth, including flats and resorts in various places, including Dhaka, Gazipur and Narsingdhi became public.

Besides, Narail-1 AL lawmaker BM Kabirul Haque said that corruption had been institutionalised in the country.

He said that people involved in procurement and project implementation committed massive corruption and made wealth worth hundreds crore of taka.

Kabirul Haque demanded drastic action against those involved in corruption saying that lawmakers had no scope of doing corruption as they were not involved in any procurement or project implementation.​

 

[Saif]

Social media, corruption and that goat

NOTHING works like social media when it comes to spreading news as it shows regularly in everyday life. Scandals, sports religion or bed bug spray are all now dependent on social media. If it is not there, it is nowhere. And, this is increasingly becoming clear that while the official, formal...

www.newagebd.net

Social media, corruption and that goat
Afsan Chowdhury 26 June, 2024, 22:04

NOTHING works like social media when it comes to spreading news as it shows regularly in everyday life. Scandals, sports religion or bed bug spray are all now dependent on social media. If it is not there, it is nowhere. And, this is increasingly becoming clear that while the official, formal and state-inspired agencies, including mainstream professional media, can be reined in when needed, social media has taken over this sector more than one would like to admit.

The kind of image the ruling powers would like people to think they have is shattered or was shattered long back and no one is pretending that it does. One can be in denial about it, but the fact remains that it will be very difficult to sell the idea to the people — read: social media consumers — that officials and power players whether police chiefs or members of parliament or senior officials are clean. There are far too many videos of bribe-consuming officials and their way of life on social media to argue otherwise.

What, of course, saves them is the fact that nobody really thought otherwise and, so, the exposure of corruption on social media has considerable interest, but more of the entertainment type rather than content on the state of governance?

Which is why the question is longer about the size of goats, resorts and so on but why such a deluge of news right now? Why suddenly this rush to expose and the felling of the biggest trees that makes regimes feel safe, secure and well-resourced? Who is responsible?

Social media, status and the wealthy

THE latest episode centred around one Iffat, the son of Matiur, a very senior revenue board official now famous for his wealth and able to carry on, no matter who accuses him of what. Iffat boasted on a social media posting of the large high-pedigree goat that he had bought during Eid-ul-Azha.

As is bound to happen when any post goes viral, people began to dig into his background and the family connection with the government official was made. Matiur was son of a senior official and not exactly an unknown content. Soon, many other details began to pop up. But the clincher came from Matiur himself when he denied that Iffat was his son. And the proverbial *&*&*&*& hit the ceiling.

Within hours, it had become one of the biggest social media sensations with everyone pitching in. Even Awami League politicians said that both were father and son. And then came the deluge of information on the kind of riches Matiur had managed to accumulate in his working years. It ran into hundreds of crores.

The riches, his own and that of others

THE list is huge and multifarious with landed property, resorts, parks, buildings, business establishments and on and on. Suddenly, he was threatening to take over Benazir in terms of accumulation. Unlike the former inspector general of police, he had not been accused of promoting 'encounter' death and had the US breathing down his neck but he seems to have been a facilitator of wealth making, his own and that of others.

In a Desh TV talk-show, a senior official remarked that when he was transferred, in 2007, senior army officials including CMLA Moin U Ahmed asked for his transfer order to be rescinded. When the head of a military government makes such a request, it shows the status. The range of his clout was obvious and that is why his fall is more than a simple act of getting tough on corruption.

Somewhere some wheels may also be moving but there is no doubt that social media has become a new factor even in politics, a new pressure space which cannot be ignored even if one wants to.

Is a crackdown on?

THAT some kind of whipping and leashing is on has become a growing speculation. Several police officials have been targeted and Benazir, Asad and others are being named on social media and none is saying whether they are in or out of the country.

Such pieces of news are making it to mainstream media which means official endorsement is there of such media distribution. That these people were into money making is no secret but nothing was ever done against them. Matiur had four major charges and investigations and he escaped each time with the proverbial 'no evidence found' tag every time. Then, why did he stumble?

A few years back, a crackdown was launched against politicians centred on gambling, including casinos. Several politicians were hauled in and they spent time in jail and hospital beds, awaiting trial, which never came. However, there was one prominent 'accused' GK Shamim but he was not a serious politician and still remains inside as sort of warning to others one guesses. Gambling of many forms are back naturally nor many ways of making money.

Given the number of civilian bigwigs of the bureaucracy variety who are being held or chased, is it a similar campaign to let the bureaucracy know that the leash is ultimately in the hands of the powers that be? No one can say as none knows, but there is no question that social media is something none can ignore.​