2 years into Rana Plaza disaster ‘Tk 1b PM fund not given to victims’

TIB

The Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) revealed the lack of transparency and also tardiness in the disbursement of the Prime Minister’s Fund for victims of the Rana Plaza collapse incident.

The international corruption watchdog’s assistant project director Nazmul Huda said about Tk 1.08 billion (108 crore) out of Tk 1.27 billion (127 crore) aid deposited with the prime minister’s fund is yet to be disbursed among the victims after two years into the incident.

TIB came up with the findings while presenting a report on ‘Steps taken to implement good governance in readymade garment sector: Progress in last one year’, at the Midas centre in city’s Dhanmondi area on Tuesday.

Later, TIB’s trustee board chairman Sultana Kamal and executive director Iftekharuzzaman answered the newsmen.

The report said around 19 million US dollars has been donated to the Rana Plaza Donors’ Trust Fund while around 2.48 million US dollars was also added to this fund from the prime minister’s relief and welfare fund to help the Rana Plaza victims. The prime minister’s fund also received around 16 million US dollars for the Rana Plaza victims where almost 14 million US dollars are still left unused.

The report also said the government did not publish the list of the compensated victims of the incident. It also said that there is no information about the trust fund’s operational costing.

TIB demanded publishing of the compensated victims’ list and details of the compensation amount.

Source: Prothom Alo