AL men loot nearly half of budget: Fakhrul

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir today blamed an influential quarter of the ruling Awami League for “looting around Tk 2 lakh crore” from the country's banking sector.

"Awami League influential looted Tk 2 lakh thousand crore in the name of loan, plunging the banking and financial sector into an utter setback," Fakhrul came up with the allegation in a press conference at the party chief Khaleda Zia's Gulshan office in Dhaka this afternoon.

Claiming that an anarchical, unstable and chaotic situation is prevailing in the country's financial sector, Fakhrul said the present government must be held responsible for this.

Citing several instances of corruption in the banking sector during the nine years rule of the Awami League government, Fakhrul showed the absence of good governance and accountability in this sector as the main cause of the crisis.

Fakhrul said a renowned research organisation considered the "2017 as a year of bank scam" while an analysis published in a national daily described the two consecutive terms of the ruling Awami League as "bank scam decade."

The country's government, non-government banks and non-banking sectors have been put on the verge of collapse as the sector is suffering from an acute liquidity crisis.

The government has established absolute control and nepotism in the banking sector that promoting the trend of money laundering and increasing the volume of default loans, he said.

"The country's rewound economists are considering the situation as ominous while the finance minister is saying that it is not a serious matter," he said.

Considering default loans as the main reason behind the setback in banking sector, Fakhrul said an influential quarter of the ruling Awmi League has been looting people's hard earned deposited money in the name of loan.

Citing Global Financial Integrity (GFI) report, the BNP leader said over Tk 6 lakh, six thousand and 764 crore was siphoned off in the last 10 years rule of the Awami League.

The GFI estimated that around Tk 77 thousand crore and Tk 73 thousand crore was trafficked to different countries in 2013 and 2014, Fakhrul said.

"We will not forgive the government for laundering and embezzling the people's money. And the government must be held accountable for this," Fakhrul warned.