Published in Kaler Kantho on Tuesday, 6 January 2015.
Around 85 percent readers in an online opinion poll of a national daily agreed with the CPD’s claim that the money siphoned off every year is more than what Bangladesh receives as overseas development aid.
Kaler Kantho, a leading Bangla daily newspaper, revealed the outcome of their online survey on Tuesday, showing 84.9 percent voters favouring CPD’s stance while 14.69 percent disagreed and 0.41 percent opted for no opinion. Some 13, 10,250 readers viewed the newspaper on the day the poll was held.
CPD made the claim during a media briefing on State of the Bangladesh Economy in Fiscal Year 2015 (First Reading) held at CIRDAP auditorium on Saturday, 3 January 2015.
Quoting Global Financial Integrity (GFI), Dr Bhattacharya noted that around $1.8bn had been siphoned off in 2012, which was more than the aid received by Bangladesh. In this regard, Professor Rahman particularly flagged that sudden surge in import of machineries did not correspond with recent investment trends on the ground. Whether it was indicative of capital flight as suspected by the IRBD analysis needed investigation, he cautioned.