Parliamentary watchdog unhappy with ACC’s probe into BASIC Bank irregularities

The parliamentary standing committee on the finance ministry is dissatisfied with the Anti-Corruption Commission’s (ACC) investigation into the alleged irregularities and loan fraud at the BASIC Bank.

The panel blames the state-owned bank’s former board of directors for the irregularities and loan fraud, but the national anti-graft watchdog makes no mention of them in its report.

Committee chief Md Abdur Razzak said on Wednesday, “We’ve come to know from news reports that the ACC is conducting the probe without holding the former chairman and the board of directors responsible.”

“We’ll conduct the investigation if the ACC can’t do it. We’ll then make the probe report public. We’ll do that because we have a conscience,” he told reporters at the end of a committee meeting.

The panel on Wednesday asked the current Board of Directors to submit a report on the irregularities committed during the previous board’s term.

Bangladesh Bank, in May last year, had removed nine top BASIC Bank officials, including Managing Director Kazi Fakhrul Islam, after its audit detected irregularities in loan disbursement from three of BASIC’s branches in Dhaka amounting to Tk 45 billion over a period of five years.

Most of the loans remained unpaid because many of the borrowers were untraceable. The bank’s Chairman, Sheikh Abdul Hye Bacchu, stepped down once the scam surfaced.

A probe revealed their involvement in the irregularities.

Moreover, the beleaguered bank is also said to have abetted money laundering.

The ACC, which officially launched the probe in 2010, is still investigating the allegations.

Media reports say the commission is now looking into the unaccounted wealth of BASIC Bank officials.

Abdur Razzak said they asked the bank’s incumbent board and management to furnish details of the irregularities and the laws that were violated by the previous board.

“They have also been asked to mention the responsibilities of the former board of directors apart from the details of the loan scam and irregularities.”

Answering to questions regarding the bank’s chairman and the MD, he said, “They are related to the Board of Directors. The chairman fixes the board’s agenda.

“He is responsible. The board, too, cannot avoid its responsibilities.”

Razzak said they had recommended submission of the report in the panel’s next meeting.