Atiur makes 14 foreign trips in 14 months [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Atiur makes 14 foreign trips in 14 months

Local March 13, 2016

Bangladesh Bank governor Atiur Rahman, who has come under criticisms for travelling to India amid money theft from the central bank’s foreign currency reserve, made at least 14 foreign trips in last 14 months.
Atiur travelled to India for three days from Thursday to join an International Monetary Fund conference while the country was still digesting the news of the theft of $101 million from the BB’s foreign currency reserve with Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Atiur’s foreign visits have remained a talking point for many of the central bank officials for last few years.
Many of the officials felt that the governor went to some programmes which could be avoided as the banking sector has been reeling from scams like Hallmark Group and Bismillah Group loan scams involving hundreds of crores of taka.
‘On average, the governor has been making one foreign trip every month in the last few years. No other governor in the BB’s history made trips so frequently,’ said a BB official.
‘Some of the seminars or conferences could have been avoided or he could send deputy governors or executive directors as the banking sector has been dogged by scams in the last few years,’ he said.
He said that most of the programmes he attended were official and the central bank had to bear the cost while in some cases the conference organisers paid the expenses for the sojourns.
He, however, could not confirm immediately the total expenditure for the tours made by Atiur.
In last 14 months, beginning from February 2015, Atiur visited India four times, the United States twice, Switzerland twice, and Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Peru, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Singapore, Malaysia and Japan once.
This year, before going to India on Thursday for the IMF’s regional conference, Atiur first went to India to join a conference on role of central banks in promoting South Asian economic cooperation organised by South Asian University in New Delhi in February.
In 2015, he visited Saudi Arabia for IDB’s Islamic Financial Services Board Council meeting in December and the UAE on his way to Kuwait in the second week of November. In the UAE he attended a seminar on Bangladesh Development Initiative while in Kuwait he participated in a conference on Islamic financing organised by the IMF and the Kuwait central bank.
During the first week of November 2015, he was in the USA and visited New York and California for UNDESA seminar and Bangladesh Development Initiative conference.
In October 2015, Atiur went for a weeklong visit to Peru for a Commonwealth central bank governors’ meeting. On his way back to Dhaka, he visited Singapore to receive ‘best central banker award’ from a newspaper.
In September, he also went for a weeklong tour to the UK and the Netherlands for conference and presentations.
Atiur visited India and Malaysia in August to attend conferences.
In the last week of June, he went to Switzerland to attend an AFI steering committee meeting.
He also visited Switzerland in May for a number of seminars and for attending the UNEP’s third advisory council meeting on ‘Design of a Sustainable Financial System’ held in Zurich.
In April he visited the USA for the IMF-WB Spring meeting in Washington.
Atiur went to India in March for the WB Group South Asia Strategy Session.
In the third week of February, he visited Japan for an IMF-JICA conference in Tokyo.
He visited the UK and Belgium in the first week of February to sign a deal for bank training institutes and to receive ‘best governor award’ given by a magazine.
Former interim administration adviser Mirza Azizul Islam told New Age on Saturday that the BB governor should consider the importance of foreign seminar or conference before making his tours.
He said, ‘He [Atiur] should take decision personally which foreign meeting, seminar or conference will be joined by him on priority basis.’
Atiur took the helm of the central bank for a four-year term on May 1, 2009. His tenure has been extended for another term of three years and three months up to August 2, 2016 by which time he will be 65.