Up to $24b of dev project investments in past 15yrs lost to extortion, bribery, inflated budgets: White Paper body

Of the $60 billion invested in ADP and development projects over the past 15 years, $14-24 billion (equivalent to around Tk1.61-2.8 lakh crore) has been lost to political extortion, bribery and inflated budgets, sources at the White Paper committee told The Business Standard.

The information comes a day before the committee submits its report to the chief adviser of the interim government, Prof Muhammad Yunus, tomorrow (1 December).

Debapriya Bhattacharya, head of the committee, at an event on Thursday (28 November), said their report will address a series of economic challenges, particularly the state of the banking sector and the alarming level of capital flight during the last 15 years of Awami League rule.

The full report will be released at a press conference on Monday (2 November). 

Earlier, a member of the White Paper committee said the then-governor of Bangladesh Bank, Abdur Rouf Talukder, prevented defaults from being classified despite significant loan defaults by influential industries like S Alam Group.  

Such intervention enabled S Alam Group and its associated institutions to secure huge amounts of loans under questionable circumstances, the committee member told The Business Standard on condition of anonymity.

The committee, which is in the process of finalising a comprehensive White Paper on Bangladesh's economy, has also uncovered that the ousted Awami League government disclosed a much lower figure on overall loan defaults and distressed assets in the banking sector.