Janata Bank loan scandal must be investigated

A comprehensive report in a leading Bengali-language newspaper on happenings at Janata Bank makes for distressing reading. And because it does, it is an absolute necessity that those who have been involved in them be brought to justice in the larger interest of the country.

These people, who were part of a team headed by the then chairman of the bank, Abul Barakat, went on providing loans of a staggering nature to a single entrepreneur, with the result that today Janata Bank is in a state of grave enervation and is threatened with collapse. In a period of six years, the entrepreneur was provided with loans amounting to a mind-boggling total of Tk. 5,504 crore from the bank. Given the recent history of scandals involving banks, this revelation is certainly one which will leave citizens and experts worried about the intense mismanagement which has been undermining the banking sector.

It appears that those involved in awarding the loans were not at all interested in ensuring that the loans were repaid by the one who had been borrowing them for as many as 22 enterprises he owns in his name or in the names of his family members. Neither did the entrepreneur think of repaying the loans and instead was plainly involved in devising newer schemes of asking for fresh loans. This Tk. 5,504 crore was given to the man over a period of time and every time he asked for a new loan it was given to him.

The question now arises as to what kind of relationship, political or personal, he had with the chairman and members of the Janata Bank board which induced them, without any questions being raised, into complying with his demand. That said, the terrible reality today is that with such a huge backlog of loans doled out to a single individual, Janata Bank is now almost comatose and unable to grant loans to people who are legitimately asking for them. As long as the loans provided to the entrepreneur in question are not recovered --- the entrepreneur is already making excuses of not being in a position to repay the loans --- there is no way in which the bank can get back to operational efficiency.

The need for the authorities now is to move swiftly into an investigation of the scandal. Everyone involved in it should be brought under the scanner through inquiries of a detailed nature in accordance with the law. The police as well as the Anti-Corruption Commission should be moving into doing the job. As for Bangladesh Bank, it has a lot of explaining to do about its faulty oversight in relation to the loans provided by Janata Bank to a single individual. What has happened is a clear instance of highway robbery and should be handled in the way robbers are handled --- without mercy.
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