WB, ACC talk fails to reach consensus on action against Abul; anti-graft body to reinvestigate corruption allegation; expert team departs
Gloom reappeared over the Padma bridge project as the World Bank team yesterday headed for the WB headquarters in Washington last night seemingly unhappy over the omission of ex-minister Syed Abul Hossain as a top corruption suspect in the project.
The panel of the lead project financier met twice with the anti-corruption commission yesterday, with the last session lasting only for about 20 minutes. Both the parties gave unclear statements over the outcome of the meetings.
“We had some open discussion. We are grateful,” Luis Moreno Ocampo, chief of the panel, told journalists outside the ACC headquarters before leaving. On the other hand, ACC Chairman Ghulam Rahman said, “Now we have to look into the whole matter afresh…our enquiry officers will re-examine the whole thing.”
Flying in on December 1, the team has so far sat with the ACC for four times to discuss the findings of the ACC enquiry into the corruption allegations in the $2.9 billion project.
The two sides had a difference of opinion over the draft enquiry report, as the ACC dropped some names, including that of ex-communications minister Abul Hossain, though the WB gave sufficient evidence of corruption against him along with others.
The WB panel argued that there was no scope for excluding their names from the enquiry report.
On November 13, the WB Integrity Vice Presidency sent the ACC a third report on corruption evidence. The report contained detailed evidence of corruption against public officials concerned as well as others.
The ACC Chairman claimed that the commission’s meetings with the WB panel were not a total failure.
“We will listen to what the World Bank and its external panel say…but it is the ACC that will make decisions in line with the laws of the land,” he told reporters after a second meeting with the WB panel yesterday at the ACC headquarters in the capital.
Apparently discontent with the ACC’s argument, the panel at one stage walked out of the first meeting with ACC officials in the afternoon, saying it needed to have some internal consultations.
Coming out of the meeting, Ellen Goldstein, WB country director for Bangladesh, said, “We continue to have some unresolved issues…as a result we are going for some internal consultations now.”
Source: The Daily Star
