Ill-gotten money stashed away abroad

Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed's appeal to the international community for assistance in recovering wealth siphoned off abroad by Bangladesh's corrupt business people and politicians is timely and appropriate. One cannot but remind oneself that had it not been for corruption, our GDP growth could have been higher by two per cent more than it has been in recent years. That figure alone is enough to convince people of the extent to which corruption has been eating away at the vitals of our society. The CA's appeal for help in obtaining recovery of the looted wealth is therefore a reflection of the justified concern the nation has about the gains from corruption allegedly stashed away abroad.
There is hardly any question that the interim government's drive against corruption has been one of the more decisive of measures taken in recent months. A fairly good chunk of ill-gotten gains has been turned over to the government exchequer by some detained politicians and businessmen in recent months. That is surely a positive sign, but much more remains to be done in this area. The CA's remarks on wealth siphoned off abroad therefore should be considered the second phase in the drive against dealing with corruption in the country. There are some important ways in which the government can go about trying to get back the resources that have illegally made their way out of the country. In the first place, an official approach which likely has been made to international financial institutions about detecting illegally earned income making its way out of Bangladesh must now be intensified. A good point about these institutions is that in recent years the surveillance level in them has been appreciably high, to the extent that it is becoming increasingly difficult for the corrupt to send their money out and into foreign banks. In the second place, there must be an appreciable rise in the degree of financial intelligence cooperation between Bangladesh and other countries.
The instability that has crept into our political and economic systems has much of its origin in the acquisition of unearned and unexplained wealth. Unless this bad system is broken down, the drive against corruption cannot be expected to achieve its full results.