IT IS promising that the government has reconstituted an inter-agency task force meant to bring back money that has been illegally taken abroad. In January 2023, the taskforce was formed by the deposed Awami League government but remained ineffective in repatriating stolen funds. In what follows, the reconstitution of the taskforce is a right step forward because the current economic crisis, particularly the dollar crisis, is largely due to the unabated capital flight. On August 31, the chief adviser鈥檚 office estimated that the amount of money illegally sent abroad is believed to be over Tk 100,000 crore. Over the last 15 years of the AL rule, according to recent media reports, nearly $150 billion, equivalent to around Tk 17.6 lakh crore, was syphoned out of the country, which is more than double the amount of the current national budget that is Tk 7.97 lakh crore. In April, the World Bank reported that around $3.15 billion outflows from Bangladesh occur annually through illegal offshore accounts. It is assuring that the government has considered repatriating stolen funds as their priority area of intervention, but it should quickly develop a strategy to fulfil their mandate, which is to locate syphoned-off money, initiate transnational legal processes, and set up communications with countries where money was transferred.
The process of recovering laundered money or identifying assets purchased with laundered money is however complex and challenging. It involves diplomatic engagement to investigate cross-border suspicious financial transactions and negotiate host and destination countries鈥� legal regimes. Once the syphoned-off money is located, legal action must be taken in the host country, and only after securing a decree from the host country can the money or property purchased with laundered money be frozen and sold to repatriate the fund. It is therefore heartening to see that the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime offered support to the Anti-Corruption Commission in this regard. Meanwhile, Transparency International Bangladesh and other anti-graft bodies urged some European and Middle Eastern countries to make the money smugglers accountable and assist the interim government of Bangladesh to bring back smuggled out money. The massive pilfering was only possible because relevant state institutions under the AL regime became virtually ineffective because of rampant corruption and irregularities. A culture of impunity and lack of accountability let corrupt elements like the former land minister get away with amassing illegal wealth. The government should also ensure that those complicit in these financial crimes are brought to justice.聽
The taskforce should, therefore, immediately develop a roadmap for expeditious recovery of laundered money, a plan that would include tracing back the trail of stolen money and assets and reviewing the legal processes of Bangladesh and other countries concerned to repatriate the stolen fund. The government should also bring all those involved in embezzling funds and complicit in these cross-border financial crimes to justice.