White Paper finds $16b laundered every year during AL regime

The committee formed to investigate irregularities and corruption in the economy has submitted a White Paper to the Chief Adviser to the interim government, Prof Dr Muhammad Yunus. The report reveals that an average of US$ 16 billion was laundered annually during Sheikh Hasina's tenure.

The White Paper was submitted to the Chief Adviser at the Chief Adviser Office in Tejgaon in the capital on Sunday afternoon under the leadership of prominent economist and head of the committee, Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya.

Later, the Chief Adviser's Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam, said the White Paper revealed that an average of $16 billion was laundered abroad every year during the rule of prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted in a mass uprising by students and the public.

He said, the White Paper has analyzed each sector of the economy separately and has shown how statistics have been manipulated to create a story of development. Although the story of development was being told, a great festival of looting was going on behind the scene.

Receiving the report, the Chief Adviser said, "This report is a historical document for us. The kind of incident that happened in the financial sector was a matter of panic. This incident happened in front of us, but no one talked about it."

The White Paper will be released on Monday at NEC conference room at Shar-e-Bangla Nagar in the capital.

The Press Secretary said, the White Paper has analyzed each sector of the economy separately and shown how statistics have been manipulated to create a story of development. Although the story of development was told, inside there was a grand ritual of looting.

Chief Adviser thanked the committee for this groundbreaking work and said, "After it is finalized, it should be made public and included in school-college-university textbooks and taught to students."

The head of the White Paper preparation committee, Debapriya Bhattacharya, said the committee worked independently without any interference from the government.

He said, "The problem is deeper than we thought. This 400-page long White Paper of 30 chapters has revealed how crony capitalism has given birth to oligarchs, and how they have controlled policy making."

Committee member Dr Mustafizur Rahman said that they examined seven major projects out of 29 projects and found that each of them cost more than Tk 10,000 crore. The total cost of the 29 major projects was $ 87 billion.

The initial cost of the seven projects examined was Tk 114,000 crore. The project cost was revised to Tk 195,000 crore by adding additional components, showing a higher land price and manipulating the purchase.

He said that the cost of the project has been increased by about 70 per cent without analyzing the cost-benefit.

He also suggested starting legal proceedings to bring those involved in money laundering under the law.

Another member of the committee, Prof AK Enamul Haque, said over Tk 7 lakh crore has been spent on the Annual Development Programme (ADP) in the last 15 years and 40 per cent of it has been looted by bureaucrats.

Committee member Mohammad Abu Yusuf said that during the previous regime, the tax exemption amount was 6 per cent of the country's total GDP. If this was reduced by half, the education budget could have been doubled and the health budget could have been tripled.

Another member of the committee, M Tamim, said that $30 billion has been invested in power generation. If 10 per cent is considered illegal transactions, the amount will be at least $3 billion.

Also present at the time were Financial Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed, Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansur, Principal Secretary Siraj Uddin Sathi and Senior Secretary Lamia Morshed.

The report titled 'White Paper on the State of the Economy of Bangladesh' contains observations on various issues including GDP growth, inflation, external balance, banking sector situation, power and energy situation, government debt, quality of statistics, trade, revenue, expenditure, mega projects, business environment, poverty and equality, capital market, education, health, women and climate issues. The committee has highlighted its observations on mega projects like Padma Bridge, rail connectivity, Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, Matarbari Power Plant and Karnaphuli Tunnel.