Mannan blames bureaucratic negligence in reporting BB vault gold
Denying reports of adulteration of gold in Bangladesh Bank vault, state minister for finance and planning MA Mannan on Wednesday insisted that the gold kept there has not been changed.
He, however, said the government will review the whole security system of the central bank’s vault for ensuring its foolproof protection, according to BSS.
The state minister came up with the reactions at a briefing after a meeting with top officials of the country’s central bank and the National Board of Revenue (NBR) at the secretariat.
Mannan was quoted to said that taking stock of the situation, he will report to the finance minster, AMA Muhith, once he returns home from New York.
“An investigation or review committee is likely to be formed to this end for further strengthening the system,” the state minister said.
Still, he blamed bureaucratic negligence in preparing the report which showed discrepancies in measurement of gold. "Authorities of the Bangladesh Bank and the NBR assured me that nothing has happened to the gold," he claimed.
Denying the report on gold scam, the state minister said, “The report is not entirely true as the number 40 in Bangla was mistakenly tipped as 80 in English due to having similarity of numbers 4 and 8. Because of the clerical mistake, the purity of the gold was recorded 80 percent instead of 40.”
Asked about whether the people who were involved with the incident will be brought to book, the state minister said, “We will meet together after reviewing the whole matter. Then we will brief the senior minister [finance minister AMA Muhith], who is now travelling abroad, of the matter.”
Bangladesh Bank governor Fazle Kabir, secretary of the financial institutions division at the finance ministry Yunusur Rahman, customs intelligence and investigation directorate’s director general Md Sahidul Islam and NBR member Kalipada Haldar were present at the meeting.
On Tuesday in a press conference, the Bangladesh Bank authorities come up with the same comments, as they termed the discrepancies in gold measurement at the BB vault a ‘clerical mistake’.
A Prothom Alo report titled ‘Gold in BB vault adulterated’, said the customs intelligence and investigation directorate of the National Board of Revenue dug out serious discrepancies in gold management, as the investigators examined 963 kg of gold out of huge quantity kept at the central bank's vault, on the basis of random sampling.
According to an investigation report of the directorate, gold weighing almost 1,000 kilograms kept in Bangladesh Bank's vault has been adulterated.
A gold disc and ring weighing 3.3 kg deposited with the BB vault two years ago was later found to be alloy of metals, the customs report added.
The report also said the 22-carat gold has turned into 18-carat gold as other metals were mixed with it after the central bank received gold discs and rings over a period of time.