CAG audit finds former chairman involved in BASIC Bank loan scam
A government special audit report has identified dozens of anomalies in distributing loans by scam-hit BASIC Bank during the tenure of deposed chairman Abdul Hye Bachchu who is still going scot-free apparently because of the ruling party’s political backing.
The audit done under the Comptroller and Auditor General of Bangladesh gave 59 objections in extension of loans and other banking activities in 2010-13 by the once profitable state-owned bank.
It would put pressure on the Anti-Corruption Commission to complete its probe on the bank’s loan scams it kept pending since 2013, said banking experts.
The financial losses of the bank during the tenure of by Abdul Hye Bacchu, appointed in 2009 and asked to resign in 2014, estimated at Tk 3,884 crore against the objections by the auditors.
The bank that suffered losses of Tk 53 crore in 2013, Tk 110 crore in 2014, Tk 314 in 2015, Tk 1,493 in 2016, Tk 684 crore in 2027, and Tk 354 crore in 2018 had approved loans without verifying collaterals and documents of ships bought by borrowers with the loans taken from the bank.
On April 17, 2012, the board of directors of the bank in its 310th and 311th meetings approved two loans — Tk 60 crore to M/s SFG Shipping Line and Tk 65 crore to Shifan Shipping Line— without any collateral.
Besides, the board of directors also approved Tk 90 crore to Amir Shipping Line and Tk 25 crore to Asian Shipping Line although the concerned branch could not provide necessary documents about the borrowers.
The auditors found that there were serious lapses on the part of the bank’s main branch in approving loans although the branch offices did not provide necessary documents.
They also found that the borrowers in these particular cases had no previous experience of business as the taxpayers’ identification numbers and trade licences provided by them were obtained just before seeking the loans.
The auditors commented that irregularities in providing loans to shipping lines alone created a responsibility of recovering Tk 212.51 crore.
The auditors penned 58 others objections in details in the report in three volumes.
The report, according to auditors, was submitted to parliament in January while the Anti-Corruption Commission officials also collected it.
Former Bangladesh Bank governor Salehuddin Ahmed said that the special audit report on BASIC Bank would put further pressure on the Anti-Corruption Commission to complete its probe on loan scams in the bank.
The commission is yet to complete the probe which began 2013 despite the High Court Division has slammed it for its failure to make any headway into 56 sensational loan defalcation cases against state-owned BASIC Bank.
In 2015, the commission sued 153 persons over a series of swindling in BASIC Bank that took place between 2009 and 2012,
when Sheikh Abdul Hye Bacchu was chairman of the bank.
The court had rebuked the commission’s lawyers Khurshid Alam Khan and AKM Fazlul Haque for its failure to arrest and prosecute Sheikh Abdul Hye Bacchu and former board of directors who sanctioned huge amount of shady loans to fictitious borrowers.
Salehuddin Ahmed said the then board of directors and the chairman could not avoid responsibility as per the audit report.
Even Bangladesh Bank in its report found the involvement of Sheikh Abdul Hye Bacchu in extension of shady loans which became bad loans within a few years to make the bank almost bankrupt.
On June 30, 2015, finance minister AMA Muhith told parliament that action could not be taken against Sheikh Abdul Hye Bacchu because of ruling Awami League leaders.
Transparency International Bangladesh executive director Iftekharuzzaman said that the commission should take immediate legal action against Sheikh Abdul Hye Bacchu and other directors for their involvement in the loan scams.
The parliamentary standing committee on finance ministry on many occasions since the detection of the loan scams recommended that the commission should bring the controversial directors to justice.
News Courtesy: www.neewagebd.net
