High Court’s laudatory observations on BB
We cannot thank the High Court enough for pinpointing the main reason why our banking sector in particular, and the financial sector in general, have come to the nadir of efficiency. Unfortunately, some of the gatekeepers have become sponsors and saviours of poachers and robbers.
The Court has expressed something that was common knowledge but never so bluntly articulated, and it is worth reproducing their observations that go into the heart of the problem. Not only have the justices said that a section of Bangladesh Bank officials, tasked with monitoring the activities of banks and financial institutions, have been harbouring financial thugs for personal gains, they have also pulled up and upbraided specific officials by appointment for dereliction of duty contributing to the country's economic and financial woes. Instead of keeping the commercial banks and financial institutions on a tight leash, they have acquiesced to some of these banks and financial institutions wreaking havoc on the nation's economic security.
The ailing financial sector has occupied a major chunk of time of our economists and think tanks for a long time. The banks and consumer financial firms in particular find regular headlines in the media. Poor management, loss-making banks recouped with public money, adding more and more banks in spite of so many private banks doing so poorly—all betray the lack of due diligence of the central bank. But the situation would not have come to such a pass if those mentioned by the High Court bench would have done their job and earned their keep honestly.
There is hardly a need to recount the consequences of their complicity in the mess. The most deleterious has been the thousands of crores of taka siphoned off to other countries. We believe that those officials of the central bank that have failed to do their duty and those who have actively connived with the financial thugs are responsible for the loss of public money, and should be made to suffer the consequences.
We would also hope that the governor of Bangladesh Bank would note the observation of the High Court and move quickly not only to enquire and identify the accomplices of the perpetrators and subject them to the law of the land, but also to plug the holes so that unscrupulous people do not find their way into higher management level of the bank. Economic security of the country cannot be tampered with by dishonest public servants.
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