Ministers should show some manners while speaking in public, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said yesterday in reaction to some derogatory comments made recently by Planning Minister AHM Mostafa Kamal.
The two have been at loggerheads lately over the outlay of the revised annual development programme (ADP).
Challenging Muhith’s ability to serve as a finance minister, Mostafa Kamal recently criticised his opposition to increasing the size of the revised ADP citing fund constraints.
Refuting Kamal's allegation, Muhith said he did not get any pension from the World Bank. “I do not get any pension from anyone in the world, except the government of Bangladesh,” Muhith told reporters yesterday. He was the first alternate executive director from Bangladesh in the World Bank.
About suing the World Bank for “disregarding Bangladesh” over allegations of corruption in the tendering process of the Padma bridge project, Muhith said: “I told the media that I would file a case against the World Bank when I leave the cabinet and become a private citizen.”
Muhith also said Kamal did not understand public-private partnership (PPP) initiative, which is “an internationally known concept, and I did not create the model in Bangladesh.”
Kamal had earlier said: “The finance minister has developed the PPP, but I do not know if it is a cow or a goat? I hope the people know what it is!”
