Money laundered after harming country in every possible way: Mustafizur Rahman

Distinguished fellow the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Mustafizur Rahman has stated that the burden of the money laundered through corruption in different mega projects during the last Awami League government’s rule might have to be borne by the next few generations.

They (of the last government) harmed the country in every possible way, to take (launder) the money out of the country, he said.

Mustafizur Rahman said this at the press conference held by the committee to prepare a white paper on the state of economy in Bangladesh at the NEC conference room in capital’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Yesterday, Monday. He is one of the members of the committee. All the members of the committee presented their opinions in brief during the press conference.

To prepare the white paper, Mustafizur Rahman worked on some selected mega projects and money laundering. In the press briefing he stated that mega projects are necessary for the country. However, a huge amount of money has been laundered through corruption from a number of mega projects. Several generations might have to bear the burden of the amount of money that has been laundered this way.

The white paper report states that USD 234 billion (USD 23,400 crore) has been siphoned out of the country between 2009 and 2023 during the last Awami League government’s rule. Based on the current market price (calculated with the dollar price of Tk 120) this amounts to Tk 28 trillion (Tk 28 lakh crore). That means an average of Tk 1.8 trillion (Tk 1.8 lakh crore) has been laundered every year.

Mustafizur Rahman also said that the pattern of corruption and money laundering has been changed as well. Previously, a large share of the corruption-earned money used to remain within the country in the shadow economy, meaning the money earned though corruption was indeed invested within the country, he said.

The government might not have earned revenue or that money might not have been included in the mainstream economy from this but, that contributed in employment. Later, it was found that a huge chunk of the money earned through corruption has flown out of the country.   

Mustafizur Rahman said, “It’s not that all the money earned from as much corruption there has been, has been taken out (laundered) out of the country. The shadow economy is still there. Suppose, Tk 100 has been earned through corruption, Tk 60 out of that has probably gone out of the country while Tk 40 is still within the country’s economy.”

Meanwhile much of the money didn’t even return to the country because of corruption, believes this distinguished fellow of CPD. Earlier, it was believed that most of the money was being siphoned off through money transfer systems like hundi or hawala against the remittance flow. But later it was discovered that the corruption was carried out through the import and export trade, he said.

Mustafizur Rahman said that the hundi and hawala system offers a higher currency exchange rate. However, people involved in this type of corruption bought dollars from the government for import at the official exchange rate. Then they imported goods worth USD 50 but showed a price of USD 150 on documents to launder the remaining USD 100 abroad. That means the money went out of the country in every possible way that can harm the country, he added.