Finance Minister AMA Muhith, in his letter to chief of external panel of experts for the Padma Bridge Project Luis Moreno Ocampo, has said the World Bank on June 29 last year took a wrong, unnecessary and uncalled for decision to cancel its $ 1.2 billion loan for the project.“The Bank in our view without any valid reason was in a hurry to take a decision as the term of the incumbent President was expiring, and took a wrong, unnecessary and uncalled for decision to cancel the loan on 29 June 2012,” Muhith said in his letter to Ocampo in response to the report of the panel on Padma Bridge.
The website of the World Bank’s integrity vice presidency has published the letter of the Finance Minister (dated June 20, 2013) following his desire.
In the letter, Muhith said in the past, Integrity Office carried out investigation into seven cases in Bangladesh and the projects were never held up during investigation. Some of the investigations resulted in withdrawal of the World Bank from financing certain components of a project.
After assuming office as Finance Minister, Muhith said, “I received complaints about four cases from the Integrity Office in May 2011 and initiated action on all of them. In the case of Padma, the World Bank held up effectiveness of the credit and made sure that no corruption would take place,”
Referring to the panel’s recommendation for inclusion of former Minister of Communications (Syed Abul Hossain) in the First Information Report (FIR), Muhith in his letter denied to comment on panel’s views; but gave the reason as to why the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) did not include him in the initial FIR, but indicated further investigation.
“The allegation that the Minister made a deal with the officials of SNC Lavalin was not supported by any corroborative evidence when the ACC lodged the FIR,” Muhith said.
When the loan was cancelled with the loan expiry date still a month away, and discussions with the Bank on how to handle the investigation were going on high gear, Muhith said the government on its part also discussing with other co-financiers at that time and they were most likely unaware of what was happening in Washington.
“So, in our view there was no reason for cancellation of the loan at that stage. It was on this ground that I requested the new President for a review of the decision,” he added.
Fortunately for Bangladesh, the Finance Minister said, the new President decided to reconsider the decision of his predecessor and both the parties arrived at an arrangement for managing the project, and the terms of the agreement were spelt out in the LoU and ToR.
“I feel this point about the unjustified and unnecessary cancellation of the loan by the World Bank needs to be properly stated when your report is published for public information,” he added.
Mentioning that Bangladesh has had a long and continuing partnership with the World Bank and the country greatly value its relationship, Muhith said that the government voluntarily requested for the cancellation of the loan for Padma project because (a) its timetable for implementation of the project did not match and (b) it feared that it was hurting relationship with the Bank and might begin to spill over into our larger development partnership.
“I’m delighted to say with the Padma irritant removed our relationship with the Bank has been restored to earlier cordiality. At the same time, I’m proud to inform you that Bangladesh is going ahead with implementation of the Padma Multipurpose Project with its own resources,” Muhith said adding that the investigation is on and it seems that seeking evidence from Canada will be considerably delayed.
As soon as the government became aware of the corruption conspiracy by SNC Lavalin, the Finance Minister said the government tried to frustrate it by recommending the blacklisting of SNC Lavalin, Bangladesh government removed and distanced those public officials against whom there were well-founded suspicion of complicity in the conspiracy.
The Finance Minister also noted that an important factual and chronological inaccuracy has unfortunately found a place in the panel’s report. The actual LoU and ToR were worked out after the review of the case was agreed to by the new President and it was finalised in September 2012.
Regarding the legislative developments relating to foreign bribery in the US, the UK, China and Canada as mentioned in the panel’s report, Muhith said that in Bangladesh also to make a promise to offer bribe is an offence.
At the same time it is also a fact that a case of this nature is being tried for the first time both in Canada and Bangladesh. – UNB
