FYI - just wondering how Non Resident Bangladeshi's could help in this regard.....BD a country with less than ~$500.00 per capita income,....and $5 Billion of it's economy is being siphoned off overseas each year!! See article/link below
Happy reading, Rana
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Bangladesh Asks U.K. to Help Recover Lawmakers' Offshore Assets
By Jay Shankar
Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Bangladesh's military backed government asked the U.K. to help recover assets moved offshore by lawmakers as part of its crackdown on corruption that has resulted in the arrest of more than 150 politicians since January.
Bangladesh suspects politicians ``have property in London or pilfered cash'' in the U.K., Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury, chairman of the Anti-Corruption Commission, said in a telephone interview yesterday from the capital, Dhaka. The commission is seeking information from Scotland Yard for its investigation.
``If Bangladesh can produce evidence from British authorities that some of the political leaders and businessmen have made investments there, which you cannot justify properly, then getting a conviction will be much easier,'' Chowdhury said.
Bangladesh, a country of 150 million people, has been under a state of emergency since the government canceled elections scheduled for January after months of clashes between supporters of political parties. Former prime ministers Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina Wajed were among the politicians arrested.
Corruption in Bangladesh is rampant, said Iftekhar Zaman, executive director of Berlin-based Transparency International, a global body that fights graft, in a phone interview from Dhaka. Bangladesh ranked 156 in the group's survey of 168 nations.
Politicization of law enforcement bodies, the judiciary and public service led to the violations, Zaman said.
``According to one estimate, $5 billion are being siphoned off to other nations each year by the corrupt people in the country,'' he said.
New York, Singapore
The Anti-Corruption Commission is moving case-by-case and individual-by-individual to track money laundering, Chowdhury said. Some of the funds taken out of the country may have been invested in London, Singapore or New York, he added.
The U.K.'s Department for International Development and the World Bank are helping Bangladesh tackle corruption, he said. The U.K. is one of the South Asian nation's biggest aid donors.
The commission plans to recruit 400 more people to boost its numbers to 1,264 personnel by year's end, Chowdhury said.
The World Bank, which lent the country $379 million in the fiscal year to June 2007, will help improve the governance of public institutions to fight corruption, Xian Zhu, World Bank country director for Bangladesh, said in an e-mailed statement.
Checks and Balances
The bank's focus is on improving public access to information and strengthening constitutional bodies that provide a ``check and balance'' on the abuse of power, such as the commission, Zhu said.
World Bank President Robert Zoellick said in July the bank should help developing nations fight corruption rather than penalize them. His predecessor Paul Wolfowitz called for aid to be cut off to countries such as Bangladesh and Chad because of graft.
Bangladesh ratified the United Nations Convention against Corruption in February 2007. This enables the country to seek international assistance in recovering illegal assets abroad. The convention requires nations to cooperate in the investigation, forfeiture and repatriation of stolen property.
Cooperation with Scotland Yard may not lead to the immediate recovery of assets, Chowdhury said.
``Recovering assets is a long, drawn process because a lot of bureaucracy is involved,'' he said. ``The moment we put a claim on money in London the opponent will go to the court to stop recovery.''
The commission has obtained 12 convictions and has 15 cases of money laundering in the courts, Chowdhury said.
The World Bank said Bangladesh has already taken ``gargantuan steps'' to curb corruption.
``Critical to long term sustainability will be the passage of a right-to-information law which the experience in other countries suggests can be an important antidote to corruption,'' Zhu said.
To contact the reporter on this story: (Jay Shankar in Bangalore at Jshankar1@bloomberg.net
Bangladesh Asks U.K. to Help Recover Lawmakers' Offshore Assets
By Jay Shankar
Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Bangladesh's military backed government asked the U.K. to help recover assets moved offshore by lawmakers as part of its crackdown on corruption that has resulted in the arrest of more than 150 politicians since January.
Bangladesh suspects politicians ``have property in London or pilfered cash'' in the U.K., Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury, chairman of the Anti-Corruption Commission, said in a telephone interview yesterday from the capital, Dhaka. The commission is seeking information from Scotland Yard for its investigation.
``If Bangladesh can produce evidence from British authorities that some of the political leaders and businessmen have made investments there, which you cannot justify properly, then getting a conviction will be much easier,'' Chowdhury said.
Bangladesh, a country of 150 million people, has been under a state of emergency since the government canceled elections scheduled for January after months of clashes between supporters of political parties. Former prime ministers Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina Wajed were among the politicians arrested.
Corruption in Bangladesh is rampant, said Iftekhar Zaman, executive director of Berlin-based Transparency International, a global body that fights graft, in a phone interview from Dhaka. Bangladesh ranked 156 in the group's survey of 168 nations.
Politicization of law enforcement bodies, the judiciary and public service led to the violations, Zaman said.
``According to one estimate, $5 billion are being siphoned off to other nations each year by the corrupt people in the country,'' he said.
New York, Singapore
The Anti-Corruption Commission is moving case-by-case and individual-by-individual to track money laundering, Chowdhury said. Some of the funds taken out of the country may have been invested in London, Singapore or New York, he added.
The U.K.'s Department for International Development and the World Bank are helping Bangladesh tackle corruption, he said. The U.K. is one of the South Asian nation's biggest aid donors.
The commission plans to recruit 400 more people to boost its numbers to 1,264 personnel by year's end, Chowdhury said.
The World Bank, which lent the country $379 million in the fiscal year to June 2007, will help improve the governance of public institutions to fight corruption, Xian Zhu, World Bank country director for Bangladesh, said in an e-mailed statement.
Checks and Balances
The bank's focus is on improving public access to information and strengthening constitutional bodies that provide a ``check and balance'' on the abuse of power, such as the commission, Zhu said.
World Bank President Robert Zoellick said in July the bank should help developing nations fight corruption rather than penalize them. His predecessor Paul Wolfowitz called for aid to be cut off to countries such as Bangladesh and Chad because of graft.
Bangladesh ratified the United Nations Convention against Corruption in February 2007. This enables the country to seek international assistance in recovering illegal assets abroad. The convention requires nations to cooperate in the investigation, forfeiture and repatriation of stolen property.
Cooperation with Scotland Yard may not lead to the immediate recovery of assets, Chowdhury said.
``Recovering assets is a long, drawn process because a lot of bureaucracy is involved,'' he said. ``The moment we put a claim on money in London the opponent will go to the court to stop recovery.''
The commission has obtained 12 convictions and has 15 cases of money laundering in the courts, Chowdhury said.
The World Bank said Bangladesh has already taken ``gargantuan steps'' to curb corruption.
``Critical to long term sustainability will be the passage of a right-to-information law which the experience in other countries suggests can be an important antidote to corruption,'' Zhu said.
To contact the reporter on this story: (Jay Shankar in Bangalore at Jshankar1@bloomberg.net
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