Once I met a gentleman from Switzerland in Brussels. He introduced himself to me as a political adviser of the Swiss foreign minister, though he did not give me his business card. At one point of our talk, he said: “Your third world countries will never achieve economic development because of rampant corruption.” I agreed and suggested: “Please ask your government to put a ban on the Swiss banks on taking deposits from the corrupt political leaders of the third world countries.” I could guess he did not like my suggestion.
Switzerland’s central bank has recently disclosed that Bangladeshi citizens’ deposits with different Swiss banks stood at Swiss francs 372m ($416.79m) at the end of 2013, equivalent to about Tk3,500 crore. To our finance minister, the Hallmark money scam where Tk4,000 crore was embezzled was a meagre amount. Echoing his comment, we may say that Tk3,500cr in deposits in Swiss banks by Bangladeshis is a paltry sum.
Recently, the UNDP published a report on capital flight from Bangladesh. In this report, the paltry sum that found safe havens abroad from this country is almost double that of the Hallmark’s meager amount on a yearly basis. It means, during the last 40 years, $32bn illegally found its way out of Bangladesh.
According to our Government Economic Review, 2014, the amount of black money that found its way out of Bangladesh to foreign destinations was $977m in fiscal 2011-12, $764m in fiscal 2012-13, and $676m in the first six months of 2013-14. As mentioned earlier, Bangladeshi citizens’ deposits with different Swiss banks stood at $416.79m only at the end of 2013. Where has the rest of the Bangladeshi black money gone? To the Cayman Islands? We may never know.
In a numbered bank account, the name of the account-holder is kept secret, and is identified through a code word. This system provides the account-holder with great privacy. Offshore banks, the safe havens of black money mainly smuggled out of poor countries, do not reveal information to any government agency unless proof of deliberate fraud is established.
The onus of proof that depositors have not taken recourse to fraud needs to be shifted to offshore banks. Now, an international law is needed to make it mandatory for these offshore banks to reveal, every year, the names of the foreign account-holders.
There should be a law requiring offshore banks to ask their would-be clients to prove that the money they want to deposit has been earned in legal ways. Organisations like Transparency International may start campaigning in favour of such laws.
If offshore banks stop taking deposits of ill-earned money from people of poor countries, these people will be forced to keep their black money in their own countries, reducing corruption at home.
Merely providing aid to poor countries will not help poor countries break the shackle of poverty in the near future if their offshore banks lay out red carpets for ill-earned money from poor countries. A UNDP publication shows that for every dollar received by Bangladesh in official development assistance, $1.4 goes out of the country in illicit flows.
We often say: “Money flies in the air of Bangladesh. Grab it, if you can.” We can also say Bangladeshi money flies off abroad, offshore banks grab as much as they can. Bangladesh is a country where “money is no problem.” According to Singapore government data, Bangladeshi tourists in Singapore are the highest spenders among the foreign tourists.
Even a few decades back, corruption was not as rampant. At present, the sky is the limit for corruption. Why? Bangladesh is one of the highest users of chemical pesticides in the world. Do toxic pesticides have any effect on the honesty of people?
Rampant corruption is a social vice in the undemocratic countries of the world. Look at Iraq – Baghdad is on the verge of falling to extremists, hundreds of people are dying in armed conflicts, and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is wondering how to smuggle his wealth out of Baghdad.
Unpatriotic people are more prone to smuggling out their ill-earned money to other countries. A lot of people in Bangladesh lack patriotism. During the football World Cup, we hoist flags of foreign countries defying the National Flag Rules. People of no other country in the world hoist foreign flags in their country during the World Cup. During cricket games, many of our young men and women go to stadiums with flags of other countries, arguing that sports have nothing to do with politics. Who will make them understand that it is not politics, but patriotism that matters?
Before the colonisation of Bangladesh by the British East India Company, ours was literally the richest country in the world. Once again an independent country, we have every possibility to become one of the leading economies in the world. We are an intelligent nation, what we need most is not political rhetoric, but an honest and just society.
