A parliamentary watchdog yesterday blasted the Anti-Corruption Commission for failing to expose corruption committed by former BASIC Bank chairman Sheikh Abdul Hye Bacchu.

The parliamentary standing committee on finance ministry in a meeting at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban formed a body, composed of representatives from the ministry, BASIC Bank and parliament secretariat, to prepare a summary report of the irregularities and corruption committed in the state-owned bank between 2010 and 2014.

The committee will also ask some top ACC officials to appear at its next meeting scheduled to be held within a month, said meeting sources.

“Huge corruption and irregularities took place in BASIC Bank between 2010 and 2014. But we are very surprised to see that the ACC is yet to find the involvement of the then chairman of the bank [Bacchu] in those incidents,” Abdur Razzaque, chairman of the parliamentary committee, told The Daily Star after the meeting.

“The committee has all the evidence about the irregularities committed by Abdul Hye Bacchu, but the ACC failed to take any action against him,” said the Awami League lawmaker.

Bangladesh Bank inspections found irregularities at BASIC Bank that cost it around Tk 4,500 crore. It was evident in central bank reports that Bacchu was the mastermind behind the scams. He approved loans arbitrarily, even after branches made negative recommendations. Many loans were given on false documents and to non-existent companies.

Razzaque said the parliamentary committee has specific evidence that Bacchu and his aides committed at least 13 types of irregularities and corruption including giving loans, recruiting employees, setting up new branches, buying cars and preparing fake minutes of board meetings.

Citing an example of irregularities, he said the former chairman had granted Tk 84 crore loan to Techno Design and Development Limited, a real estate company owned by Shahida Akhtar Seno, violating rules.

“Although the bank's head office and Gulshan branch opposed giving the loan to the firm on valid grounds, the board granted the loan,” added the MP.

The committee chief said at least 27 clients who took loans of over Tk 1,200 crore through irregularities remain untraced now. 

The bank has been issuing notices to those people and organisations asking them to repay the loans, but they are not communicating with the bank, he mentioned. “They [clients] are so influential that they don't even bother responding.”

Razzaque said they asked BASIC Bank officials to join the committee's next meeting with details of those clients.

The parliamentary watchdog yesterday also asked BB Governor Atiur Rahman, who was present at the meeting, to take measures to cut bank interest rates, especially for agro-processing farms.