Islami Bank has been put under the scanner of Bangladesh Bank (BB) again for its alleged misuse of Zakaat Fund.
A BB official told the agency that the central bank started an investigation into the allegation against Islami Bank that the Bank misused huge amount of money, collected from the members of public as Zakaat. The central bank in November appointed an observer to Islami Bank after getting complaint that the bank was transferring huge suspicious fund to its subsidiary, Islami Bank Foundation.
The BB also imposed a ban on transfer of any fund from Islami Bank to its foundation while the observer would be identifying any suspicious transactions and activities of the bank and its foundation,
The BB official said the central bank received another complaint on December 15 against the Islami Bank for its alleged misuse of Zakaat fund. This time the central bank got the compliant from the Zakaat Board.
Established in 1982 under the umbrella of the Islamic Foundation, Zakaat Board collects, manages and oversees the Zakaat in the country.
In a letter to the BB governor, the Board said it is entitled to collect Zakaat through an account under the name of ‘Government Zakaat Fund’. But the Islami Bank opened a similar account in the name of ‘Islami Bank Foundation’ to collect Zakaat.
The Board said the matter was referred to an expert committee of the Islami Foundation for comment and the committee observed that operation of such account by Islami Bank was a violation of banking act.
The committee also observed that the Islami Foundation has been spending money from the Zakaat Fund in many projects and activities those are not supported by Islamic Shariah.
Referring to the opinion of the expert committee, the Board in the letter mentioned that the Islami Bank Foundation had been spending Zakaat fund to run different activities at their own choice instead of following the criteria, set in Holy Qura’n, for distributing and spending Zakaat.
The Board advised for taking initiative to stop such activities by the Islami Bank and take back the huge amount of money, collected through the Islami Bank Foundation account, which is legally belongs to the government Zakaat fund.
Islami Bank Foundation was also found operating an unauthorized micro-credit programme during a Bangladesh Bank investigation in May this year.
Any micro-finance institution or non-government organisation has to obtain permission from the Micro-credit Regulatory Authority (MRA) to run the credit programme. Islami Bank Foundation is yet to get any MRA licence.
According to MRA Act, 2006, organisations will face maximum Taka 5 lakh fine or one year in jail or the both if found running unlicensed micro-credit activities.
The Islamic Foundation earlier this year also filed a case against former BNP state minister for religious affairs Mosharref Hossain Shahjahan, former Jamaat lawmaker Delwar Hossain Saydee, and two others, on charges of misappropriating Taka 1.28 crore from the government Zakat Fund.

Source: The Independent