Money stolen from banks with high-level support: Touhid

Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossain today (29 January) alleged that money was stolen from banks during the previous ousted Awami League governments with encouragement from high-level leadership.

"The theft of money from our banks was not accidental. It was enabled by support from the highest levels of authority," he said.

The foreign affairs adviser said this while inaugurating the first phase of implementation of the Integrated Online Authentication Management (Apostille Convention 1961) at the foreign ministry.

Expressing concern over certain banks being deliberately weakened, he said, "Good banks are being burdened with bad loans intentionally. Such actions would not have been possible without backing from top authorities," he said.

Hossain emphasised the need to prevent corruption across various processes, including in the newly introduced authentication system.

"This is a small step, but such measures can take us a long way. It is difficult to eliminate corruption entirely where opportunities exist. Therefore, we must remove such opportunities to curb corruption," he said.

Referring to the issue of 60,000 Bangladeshi passports being held up in Italy, he attributed the problem to document credibility issues.

"A broker from Bangladesh obtained approval from an organisation in Italy, but the organisation lacks the capacity to handle the process properly," he explained.

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Discussing Bangladesh's image abroad, the adviser cited examples of Bangladeshi lawmakers being arrested in foreign countries.

"A nation's image is not built in a day, nor does it collapse overnight. When Bangladeshis account for the highest number of deaths while crossing the Mediterranean, positive statements alone cannot protect our image," he said.

However, he noted that positive actions help improve perceptions.

"When a Bangladeshi origin taxi driver returns lost money abroad, our image improves automatically. Conversely, when an MP is jailed in another country for corruption, maintaining our reputation becomes challenging," he said.

The adviser also highlighted the manpower crisis in Bangladesh's foreign missions.

Giving the example of Qatar, he said, "If a mission (in Qatar) has to distribute 300 passports daily, how can it provide any other service?"

He added that steps are being taken to increase manpower in missions and digitise services.

"We must modernise our system so that passport applicants no longer need to visit missions. Instead, passport services should reach them with the proper documentation," he said.

Foreign Secretary Md Jasim Uddin, Cabinet Division Secretary for Reform Affairs Mahmudul Hossain Khan, and ICT Secretary Shish Haider Chowdhury also spoke at the event.