Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina on Thursday expressed disappointment at the fact that no money allegedly siphoned off by a section of politicians, businessmen and bureaucrats during the past political rules could be recovered yet.

At a cabinet meeting she asked Bangladesh Bank to bolster its anti-money laundering activities to improve the rate of success in recovering the money.

Bangladesh Bank and other state-owned agencies have not been able to recover a single penny since the Awami League-led coalition government assumed office in January 2009, sources said. Experiences of Nigeria and Philippines suggest that recovery process of stolen money is quite lengthy and may even take 15 years.

The issue is serious for Hasina’s government as the success of the initiative will legitimise its allegations that a section of politicians and businessmen—mostly loyal to BNP—siphoned off money to foreign banks during the 2001-2006 BNP rule.

Accusations of laundering a huge amount of money are frequently made by AL leaders against the two sons of former prime minister and BNP chief Khaleda Zia.

The Anti-Corruption Commission has already filed two cases—one each against Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman—in connection with money laundering.

It is likely to file more cases against them soon, sources said.

The initiative to recover stolen money was taken by the last caretaker govern-ment, which arrested over 200 politicians and officials on graft charges.

Many former ministers and lawmakers were charged with amassing illegal wealth and siphoning off money.

More than Tk 12 billion was seized on charge of money laundering during the 22-month-long rule of the caretaker administration, but the amount was recovered from local sources.

Assuming power in January 2009, the present AL government decided to carry forward the initiative.

A senior executive of Bangladesh Bank, said the central bank had already taken steps, including striking deals with a number of foreign central banks and international financial institutions, for information about the money stolen from Bangladesh.

The official, who was present at yesterday’s cabinet meeting, told the daily sun that Bangladesh Bank has also brought about changes in the existing money laundering law in line with suggestions from a multilateral organisation to get its membership.

Source: daily-sun, Bangladesh/31st Dec 2010