Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader today said Centre for Policy Dialogue's (CPD) must prove the allegation that Tk 92,000 crore was siphoned out of the banking sector in last 15 years.
"Since the CPD has brought allegations of irregularities, they have to say where the money is," Quader said responding to a question during a press conference at the political office of Awami League President Sheikh Hasina at Dhanmondi, in Dhaka, reports UNB.
"If they provide detailed information, we will bring the money back to the country," Quader added.
The independent think-tank came up with the figure by compiling reports published in the media between 2008 and 2023.
"The amount is around 12.1 percent of this fiscal year's total budget and 1.8 percent of the country's GDP size -- it is huge and so is its impact," said CPD Executive Director Fahmida Khatun said at a media briefing on Saturday while sharing its observation on the state of Bangladesh's economy in the fiscal year 2023-24.
The figure includes the major loan scams such as the Hall-Mark Group's embezzlement of Tk 4,357 crore from Sonali Bank, siphoning out of Tk 4,500 crore from BASIC Bank and the recent embezzlement of Tk 2,320 crore from Islami Bank.
Meanwhile, Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud discredited CPD's findings today claiming they had not conducted genuine research.
"They just made a report based on some newspaper cuttings and held a press conference. Their statements are nothing but blatant lies," he said, while talking to reporters at BTV Chattogram centre.
"Although the CPD press conference talked about research, in reality it takes a lot of time to do research, a lot of information is needed. But the CPD has done a lot of concealment in preparing and publishing this report and they have presented many wrong information," said the joint general secretary of Awami League.
Contacted, Fahmida Khatun today reiterated that the CPD finding was based on media reports.
"These irregularities were identified by the banks themselves and were published in the mainstream media. Some of these irregularities are also being investigated by the concerned authorities," she said.
"Finding out the whereabouts of the money is not CPD's task," said the CPD executive director.
