Getting back nation's stolen assets

Though recovery of money and other assets laundered out of the country by those in power during the tenure of the ousted autocracy and their crony oligarchs was declared a priority by the interim government, yet, it has proved to be a very complex and audacious task. Despite efforts by the different government bodies including the  Bangladesh Bank (BB), which is heading the 11-member inter-agency task force to retrieve the stolen assets, little progress could be made to date. It is not only the complicated nature of the task that is coming in the way of early recovery of the laundered assets. In fact, the interim government's lack of experience in the job has also proved to be a big hurdle. As reported in the last Tuesday's issue of this paper, despite making mutual legal assistance (MLA) requests for particulars about tycoons who are staying overseas after fleeing Bangladesh, rather than coming up with any information, the authorities of those countries concerned asked for more details.

Admittedly, such problems have more to do with the Bangladeshi agencies' lack of familiarity with the format of MLA than with non-cooperation from the other side. Now, more than a year in pursuit of the stolen assets, the result so far is nothing to write home about. Understandably, the staff involved in the task would require training on the MLA format to be able to convey our requirements effectively to our overseas counterparts. Also, there are complexities involving international and local laws about repatriation of stolen assets. Even the National Board of Revenue (NBR)'s attempts at realizing evaded taxes against accounts frozen by court order has proved unsuccessful due to counter court cases filed against the move by opponent parties. Evidently, fighting a long and arduous legal battle to get the frozen assets back is out of the question by the interim government with hardly a month or two left in office. Also, the government is not willing to pursue the alternative path of resolving the cases out of the court. Moreover, the central bank's priority should be recovering the funds in the frozen accounts back. However, in this connection, the central bank reportedly instructed individual banks to engage law firms to retrieve laundered funds. The respective banks would be required to sign non-disclosure agreements with the law-firms to be so employed. Hopefully, such measures, though belated may produce some positive results. However, the success would ultimately depend largely on the measure's continuity during the tenure of the post-interim elected government. 

 The present government, it appears, is actually learning by doing the complicated job of recovering the money laundered by the top-notches of the former autocratic regime and their crony oligarchs who have the money and the connections abroad. They can hire financial experts to  advise them on how best to hide their money. The documentary on Bangladesh's stolen billions released by the Financial Times, a prestigious UK-based newspaper, early last September speaks volumes for this.  It explained graphically the level of corruption involved that was 'beyond seen elsewhere' and the immense obstacles  especially to reaching settlements, that is, about clinching a deal with whoever stole the money.

However, there are some reports of progress in recovering the assets of one absconding minister of the former regime regarding which the UK authorities have appointed an administrator.  However, the government is still a long way to go to achieve any tangible results any time soon. The interim government should at least lay the foundation for the next government to continue work on recovering the country's stolen assets.