Bangladesh minister says MPs, bureaucrats stealing money in projects for poor

Almost the entire amount of money earmarked for Test Relief (TR) and Food for Work - programmes run for the poor- ‘gets stolen’, Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu has said.

He has laid the blame for such corruption squarely at the door of public representatives and bureaucrats.

He says he, being an MP, knows how the money is stolen.

“The government gives 300 tonnes. Mr MP steals 150 tonnes first, then the others share the rest among themselves,” Inu said at the inaugural session of ‘Bangladesh Summit: Sustainable Development 2016’ in Dhaka on Sunday.

“Not all MPs do this. But some MPs do,” he said.

He said ‘everyone knows’ about the corruption but no one is doing anything to stop it.

“We are allowing this theft in TR by keeping our eyes shut,” the minister said.

“Tens of millions are being stolen. I have kept count – a mosque made of gold can be built with the TR money.”

He demanded that Finance Minister AMA Muhith close down these programmes and launch a rural rationing system to put an end to corruption.

“We have a crisis of resources, but we are throwing these scant resources away, giving them to whom? To make an MP, a bureaucrat or a union council chairman rich?” Inu asked.