Destiny group brought under government watch

The government has decided to appoint an administrator to oversee day-to-day functioning of the group and ensuring that no asset registered under the Destiny group is disposed off during the tenure of the investigation. We support the move. After conducting an investigation into anti-money laundering activities of the Destiny group worth around Tk3,256 crore over the last eight months, the nine-member investigation committee submitted its report to the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) on October 1. The probe found a number of irregularities by shareholders and recommended a full-blown audit to be carried out by an internationally reputed audit firm to determine the group's assets and liabilities.
We have been assured that anti-graft watchdog ACC will look into gross violations of illegally transferring Tk4,975 crore out of a total Tk4,996 crore were transferred to personal accounts of Destiny group owners goes to show the magnitude of the scam. The government's decision to appoint such an administrator to oversee the group's activities is welcome news. However, given the fact that an investigation of this enormity will involve several institutions like the ACC, MoC, NBR, cooperatives department, the foreign audit company along with the government-appointed Administrator, clear terms of references have to be charted out at the very outset. Though MoC is tasked with coordination, lack of such synchronisation has already surfaced. Hence, unless steps are taken now to clearly delineate which body will be responsible for what, we run the risk of getting bogged down by 'technicalities' which have the potential of derailing the thorough investigation the case deserves.
We firmly believe that a thorough auditing of the books is the need of the hour and exemplary punishment must be handed out to the perpetrators. In many ways, the handling of the Destiny Group investigation will be a test case for the government. However, there are many other scandals coming to public light. In view of these scams in other banks, we believe the time is ripe for a high powered commission involving the central bank to be setup to look into the whole issue of financial sector reform which will chart out a series of steps to restore discipline.