Dhaka, July 17 (Just News): Gold weighing almost 1000 kilograms kept in Bangladesh Bank's vault has been adulterated, reveals an investigation by the customs intelligence.
The 22-carat gold has turned into 18-carat gold as other metals were mixed with it after the central bank received gold discs and rings over a period of time, investigators believe.
The customs intelligence and investigation directorate of the National Board of Revenue dug out serious discrepancies in gold management, as the investigators examined 963 kg of gold out of huge quantity kept at the central bank's vault, on the basis of random sampling.
A gold discs and ring weighing 3.3 kg deposited with the BB vault two years ago was later found to be alloy of metals.
This is another major scam after an amount of $81 million was stolen from the Bangladesh Bank's foreign exchange account with the Federal Reserve Bank in New York in 2016.
The government might have lost millions of taka but a former senior banker called it unthinkable on the part of the custodian of the national monetary system.
The directorate, which prepared a report based on inspection at the vault in January-April 2017 and submitted it in January 2018, sent a letter to the Bangladesh Bank seeking necessary action.
According to the report, on 23 August 2015, warehouse official of the customs Harunur Rashid handed over a gold disc and a ring weighing 3.3 kg to the central bank authorities.
The Bangladesh Bank authorities, after examination of the gold by a goldsmith, certified it as 19.2-carat genuine gold before putting it into its vault. That means the metal contained 80 per cent pure gold.
When the team of investigators reexamined the gold disc in January this year, it was found that the metal contained only 46.66 per cent gold and it was graded as 11.2-carat gold, said the report. The ring had 15.12 per cent gold which is graded as 3.63-carat gold.
“The disc and ring contain no gold at all. These are made with alloy of other metals,” read the report. The government has lost Tk 11.8 million as a result of this adulteration alone.
Carat is a measurement of purity of gold alloyed with other metals. Lower carats contain less gold.
Asked about the matter, Bangladesh Jewelers Association executive committee member Dewan Aminul Islam said the carat defines the value of gold. “Price of gold depends on the carat, as well and the price varies a lot in terms of variation in carat.”
The team of investigators also found that the 960 kg gold they examined, was graded in the range of 20-24 carat but mentioned as 18-carat gold in the Bangladesh Bank's record.
The central bank issues receipt after fixing the grade of the gold in presence officials of the BB, the NBR and other authorities concerned. The central bank then issues a letter to each of the authorities.
When asked, former Bangladesh Bank deputy governor Khondokar Ibrahim Khaled said there is no scope to dismiss the matter as trivial. He insisted that if those officially assigned to look after gold are quizzed, the truth of the matter would come out.
“This is just unthinkable. We are stunned when such scams take place. There are just a handful of people who are officially assigned to look after this,” he added.
National Revenue Board (NBR) officials said the NBR chairman, Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, has already sent a demi official (DO) letter to the Bangladesh Bank in this regard.
Mosharraf Hossain told Prothom Alo that he earlier at an informal meeting urged the Bangladesh Bank governor to take action in this regard.
When approached, BB executive director and spokesperson Debashish Chakraborty said, “I don’t have enough information at this stage to say anything about this.”
Transparency International, Bangladesh (TIB) executive director Iftekharuzzaman said, “I hope Bangladesh Bank will investigate the matter and come out with a clarification. It’s the central bank’s responsibility to identify how this happened and who were behind this. If Bangladesh Bank fails to do so, it will lose confidence of the people.” -Prothom Alo
(Justnews/ys/2320hr)
