Remission application of 2 central bank directors rejected
The application for remission of the sentence imposed on two joint directors of the Bangladesh Bank was rejected at a meeting of the bank's Board of Directors held on Thursday.
The two directors – Abdullah Al Mabud and Almas Ali – were allegedly involved in fraud in a recruitment test of the central bank in 2020, and bank authorities cancelled their increment for violating the bank's policies.
Later, they applied to the Human Resources Department-1 of the bank for the remission of the punishment.
Sources said a recruitment test took place for 26 vacant posts of CCTV Operator of the bank in 2020 when Almas Ali and Abdullah Al Mabud were working in the Human Resources Department.
They used to inform applicants about where their exam would take place and who would be on the interview board. They even used to leak questions and lobby for the interview. The central bank investigated these matters and took disciplinary action against them.
Bangladesh Bank Governor Fazle Kabir presided over the meeting that also discussed the monetary policy for the new financial year. The central bank will announce its monetary policy for the new financial year on 30 June.
Currency swap agreement with a Russian bank
The meeting also discuss the application the central bank sent in December 2020 for a currency swap agreement with a Russian bank, which was rejected. However, no decision was taken in the meeting in this regard.
The swap agreement proposed that the Russian bank would pay the price of the goods imported from Russia with the income of the amount that Bangladesh would export to Russia annually. Whatever amount is left would be paid through the currency of a different country.
Besides, the meeting was supposed to discuss the case filed in a US court to recover the money stolen through cyber hacking from the reserves of the Bangladesh Bank, but the issue was not discussed due to lack of time.
On 4 February 2016, $8.1 crore was stolen from the reserves of Bangladesh Bank, kept in the US Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The money was quickly withdrawn when it went to Rizal Bank in the Philippines.
The Bangladesh Bank filed a case in a New York court three years ago to recover the money.
