A visiting delegation of Asia Pacific Group (APG) – who came to Dhaka to evaluate anti-money laundering efforts of Bangladesh – has expressed concerns about shortcomings of the government in stopping terror financing and money laundering.
“The visiting APG team expressed concerns about four issues – government’s procurement policy, gold smuggling, the role of state-owned banks, and the Anti-Corruption Commission – in dealing with money laundering and terrorist funding,” said Finance Minister AMA Muhith.
The eight-member delegation headed by David Shannon made the observations during a meeting with the minister in his residence in the capital yesterday.
“In reply, I have assured the APG team of amending the procurement act soon,” Muhith told journalists after the meeting.
That amendment is currently being prepared, the minister said, adding that an outside group will come to the country and work from November 1-3 to strengthen the government procurement policy and find out its loopholes.
The Asia Pacific Group’s Financial Action Task Force, during its visit, evaluated Bangladesh’s regulatory and functional capabilities in tackling the recent terrorist threats and the country’s poor records in containing unabated money laundering.
Commenting on the delegation’s concerns about gold smuggling, Muhith said: “The government is yet to take any step against the illegal activities, as Bangladesh is being used only as a transit to India and Middle East.”
However, Bangladesh Bank was already busy taking some steps against gold smuggling, while further effective measures against gold smuggling would also be introduced in the next budget, the minister added.
The visiting APG team, however, praised the country’s strategy in combating money laundering but urged the government to follow up on its strategies.
“By this year, my committee working against those issues and also myself will hold meeting and take steps regarding the strategies taken against money laundering and terror financing.” Muhit said.
On APG’s concerns about state-owned banks, the minister said: “In public sector banking, we have weaknesses; but I hope we can overcome that and I have been planning to discuss this with the prime minister. In a month or two after discussing, some steps will be taken regarding this public sector banking which will be fruitful, I believe.”
The visiting delegation has also collected documents related to state-run Sonali Bank and Basic Bank for further scrutiny, he added.
The minister said the APG team has found that the ACC’s measures against money laundering and terror financing were less than before.
“I will discuss the matter with the chairman of the ACC soon,” Muhith said.
When contacted about the APG observations, M Bodiuzzaman, chairman of Anti-Corruption Commission, said the watchdog’s effectiveness in tackling money laundering was weakened after the central bank’s Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit took over the role of probing into terror financing and money laundering issues.
The commission’s effectiveness is likely to be diminished further as there are speculations that further investigative jurisdiction on money laundering issues would be handed over to the police in the future, the ACC chief added.
