Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Govt to retrieve 2,000cr Hall-Mark loan: Muhith

Govt to retrieve 2,000cr Hall-Mark loan: Muhith
[ Source: The Daily Star, Date of Publication: Wednesday, September 5, 2012 ]


Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Wednesday said the government would be able to retrieve Tk 2,000 crore of the loan given out to Hall-Mark group within a short time.
“We could realise rest of the amount also but this huge media outcry over the loan irregularity is impeding us from reviving the loan,” he commented while talking to journalists at his secretariat office in the afternoon.
Earlier, on Tuesday, critising the media coverage of the Tk 4,000 crore Sonali Bank scam, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said the 'imprudent' publicity has raised questions whether the banking sector is at stake.
“Here, my banking crisis – which is not a crisis at all. It is a matter of 3,000, 4,000 crore. Nonsense! But you (the media) are harming the banking sector by publicising it. Banking sector is confronted with questions whether all of it had crumbled down," he said.
"People for nothing are raising hue and cry on the issue and tarnishing the image of the country," he said criticising the media coverage.
According to a functional audit report as of May 31 this year, the Ruposhi Bangla Hotel-branch of the bank had disbursed Tk 3,606 crore as loan to Hall-Mark Group and other entities without maintaining banking rules.


Syful Shamsul Alam and Co, a chartered accountant and consultancy firm, submitted the report.
The firm found various officials of the bank responsible for the scam. It said the top management of the bank had remained “mysteriously silent for a year”, since February 2011, although the signs of irregularities in the branch came to light through various internal inspections.
In May, a central bank investigation also revealed massive irregularities by the bank in sanctioning and disbursing of loans, especially to little-known Hall-Mark Group and others, and instructed it to take necessary actions.
Sonali Bank on August 30 suspended 17 of its officials for their alleged involvement with the loan scam.
The officials have been held responsible for unethical disbursement of the loans to the textile company Hall-Mark Group and some other firms, according to the investigation by the central bank.
The Anti-Corruption Commission, which recently started investigation into the loan irregularity, had quizzed 19 Sonali Bank officials till Monday.