BB heist report to be public by Sept 24

Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday said the probe report on the Bangladesh Bank's reserve heist would be made public by September 24, though the minister made such promises several times in the past and failed to keep those.

“I will go abroad on September 24. The report will be released before that,” Muhith told reporters at his secretariat.

“I don't want to be asked about this when I am abroad.”

Muhith will leave for the US next month to attend the upcoming spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group.   The three-member probe panel, led by former BB governor Mohammed Farashuddin, submitted its final report to the finance minister on May 30.

At that time, Muhith had said the report would be published in about 20 days.

Since then Muhith on different occasions, including in parliament on July 21, said the investigation report on the heist will be made public within the “next few days”.

Earlier this month, the parliamentary standing committee on the finance ministry expressed dissatisfaction over the finance ministry and Muhith for not making the report public.

The parliamentary body recommended that the ministry make the report public immediately considering the country's image.

“The committee thinks people should know the names of the masterminds and they should be brought to book,” M Abdur Razzaque, chief of the committee, had told The Daily Star earlier.

The probe panel was formed on March 15, more than a month after hackers stole $101 million from the BB account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The government-formed panel submitted its preliminary report on April 20.