Finance Minister AMA Muhith has said that the government will soon form a banking commission to bring back discipline and good governance in the sector.
“A couple of years have passed since the big fund embezzlements were unearthed in Sonali Bank and BASIC Bank. But we still see a lack of good governance in the country’s banking sector,” the minister said in an interview with Dhaka Tribune on January 11, the eve of the second anniversary of taking power by the Awami League government.
He said the commission is likely to be formed before this June after the formulation of the relevant terms and conditions.
The current financial situation of the country’s banking sector and the activities of five state-owned commercial banks both needed a review, the minister said.
“We have dropped the provision of political appointment of directors to public banks because it was because of their excessive greed that the big loan scams took place at that time.
“They simply acted as commissioned agents for potential borrowers of the state-owned banks and that eventually affected the quality of the loans given to little-known borrowers and financial firms,” Muhith told the Dhaka Tribune.
The minister was asked about former Jatiya Party (JaPa) lawmaker Abdul Hye Bachchu’s alleged involvement with BASIC Bank’s loan scams and the subsequent dropping of his name from charges by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
In reply, Muhith said everything possible was done from his end but what more could he or his office do if the ACC could not find anything against Bachchu.
The name of the former BASIC Bank chairman [Bachchu] was mentioned on every financial investigation report in connection with the bank’s loan scams, he said.
“I did not send his name to the ACC but in the entire volume of reports, Bachchu was mentioned as the prime accused.
“I know that he was freed from all charges of fund embezzlement of BASIC bank. But I never asked the ACC to file any cases against him,” the minister pointed out.
Bachchu was appointed the chairman of BASIC Bank in 2009 and he stepped down on March 8, 2015 after the allegations were raised against him.
Muhith admitted that the big loan scams involving Hallmark and Sonali Bank and Abdul Hye Bachchu and BASIC Bank tarnished the success of the Awami League-led government’s success stories.
“I am quite pleased to see that the important people, who were involved with the loan scams in the country’s largest state-owned bank, Sonali Bank, spending time in the Dhaka Central Jail and facing trial,” Muhith said.
He also claimed to have found while reviewing the default loan and embezzelement cases that the Sonali Bank officials did not pursue the cases running at the High Court, Supreme Court and specialised financial courts.
Saying that not putting in effort behind operating these cases was a crime, the minister asked the policymakers and the management of Sonali Bank to assign competent officials for this job.
