Finance Minister AMA Muhith terms it Zoellick's personal opinion,Bangladesh

BANGLADESH NEWS

In his reaction to the cancellation of loan for the Padma bridge project, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said on Saturday that it might be a personal opinion of World Bank President Robert Zoellick.

"I think it is not a decision of the World Bank. Rather, it is a personal opinion of its outgoing president," the minister said in a press statement in the evening.

The World Bank has cancelled $1.2 billion credit for the Padma bridge project with immediate effect, saying it has credible evidence of a high-level corruption conspiracy among Bangladeshi government officials.

"The language and expression used in the World Bank statement, I’ve enough doubt whether it can issue such statement about any of its member countries," he said. "We think such a statement is absolutely unacceptable."

Muhith refuted the WB statement that says it has evidence of corruption and the government did not take any steps accordingly. "The statement is untrue," he said.

"We have been exchanging letters and having talks with the World Bank for the last nine months and we have taken outstanding steps to eliminate its confusion," said the finance minister.

He claimed that till date there has been no corruption in the Padma bridge project, though Tk 1,500 crore has been spent.

The finance minister said he will deliver a speech about this matter in the Jatiya Sangsad on Monday.

Muhith said the government was informed early Saturday that the World Bank had cancelled the loan it granted previously for the Padma bridge project. Later, in the morning the WB posted the notice on its website.

The development institution also said that it had provided evidence from two investigations to the prime minister, as well as the minister of finance and the chairman of the anti -corruption commission (ACC) of Bangladesh in September 2011 and April 2012.

"We urged the authorities of Bangladesh to investigate this matter fully and, where justified, prosecute those responsible for corruption. We did so because we hoped the government would give the matter the serious attention it warrants," the statement said.