Money confiscation by last CG illegal
Says home minister
Confiscation of money from businessmen and politicians during the last caretaker government was not legal, said Home Minister MK Alamgir yesterday.
He further said no body has the right to spend from the amount confiscated, but if necessary, the money can only be spent through the parliament.
During the last caretaker government, a joint taskforce seized, as penalties, more than Tk 1,200 crore from a number of businessmen and politicians in anti-graft drives carried out in 2007 and 2008.
On behalf of the government, Bangladesh Bank maintains a joint account which the funds were deposited into.
The minister, however, did not mention how much was deposited in the account.
MK Alamgir was addressing a roundtable on “Advancing Public Participation and Accountability in the Budget Process” at Ruposhi Bangla Hotel in the capital. Bangladesh Nari Progati Sangha organised the roundtable yesterday.
Disagreeing with the finance minister's remarks that budgets for local governments were needed, Alamgir said there is no need of separate budgets for districts, upazilas and union parishads.
If the local governments want to formulate any budget, they will have to do it with their own income, he said.
He also said no parliamentary member should concern themselves with budgets for local governments as it is not their job
“However, if they [MPs] want to give inputs, they should do so through the parliament,” Alamgir said.
On the subject of black money, the minister said all undisclosed money should not be termed black money as people associate the term with bad deeds and sin.
Dr Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), Barrister Manzoor Hasan, Rashida Begum Hira MP, among others, spoke at the roundtable.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments