The High Court has observed that a section of Bangladesh Bank officials, tasked with monitoring the activities of banks and financial institutions, have been harbouring financial thugs for personal gains.

"It is the misfortune of the people of this country that while the head of the government is working tirelessly with utmost honesty for the economic development of this country, the officials concerned, particularly the DGMs [deputy general managers], GMs, executive directors and deputy governors of Bangladesh Bank, who were in charge of monitoring performance and activities of banks and financial institutions at the relevant time, have been harbouring financial thugs/perpetrators, just for personal gains, destroyingthe motherland's economy," said the court.

The HC bench of Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar made the observation in the full text of its order on a petition that sought its directives to remove the current board of directors of Bangladesh Industrial Finance Company Limited (BIFC).

The bench had delivered a short order on the issue on December 17 last year. The full text of the order was released yesterday.

Tees Mart Inc, a US private company holding 10 percent shares in BIFC, filed the petition in March last year. It sought HC directives for appointing an independent auditor to find out the total amount of money embezzled from the BIFC by Proshanta Kumar Halder, also known as PK Halder, and his cohorts in the last five years.

The petitioner alleged that the then BIFC board of directors led by PK Halder embezzled around Tk 500 crore from the BIFC and a business group owned by Maj (retd) Abdul Mannan plundered around Tk 1,000 crore sanctioned as loans to the companies belonging to him and his family. 

In the full text of its order, the HC said, "For the case in hand, the general managers who were in charge of overseeing the activities of the financial institutions from the year 2002 to date should be made answerable for causing the disaster in the financial sector."

"Although this court is well-competent to draw the attention of the Anti-Corruption Commission to initiate a primary enquiry against the aforesaid persons, I opt to refrain from passing such orders/directives for now with an expectation that the governor of Bangladesh Bank shall look into the matter for the greater interest of the nation in order to dismantle the prowess and ill-plans of the offenders so that no further public money is purloined by the crooked businessmen in collaboration with the unscrupulous Bangladesh Bank officials," Justice Khurshid noted.

The HC bench appointed Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury, a retired judge of the Supreme Court, as the independent director-cum-chairman of BIFC to preside over the company's board meetings and annual general meetings.

It also appointed four independent directors to the company. They are Shamol Kanti Ghosh, former agriculture secretary; Dr Md Jamil Sharif, a teacher at Dhaka University; Md Mahamud Hossain, ex-vice president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh; and Md Shahadat Hussain, ex-member of the national wage and productivity commission.

The newly-appointed chairman is empowered to call, conduct and hold a board meeting of BIFC at his earliest convenience in consultation with the advocates of the parties and all the board members.

The court also tasked "Nurul Faruk Hasan and Co. Chartered Accountants" with carrying out audit of the company.

It ordered the CA firm to find out the assets, liabilities, and balance of BIFC, the amount of personal investments of the sponsor shareholders in BIFC and the mode of investment by the sponsor shareholders.

The HC also asked the BB governor to do the needful to give effect to the BIFC board of directors.

Lawyer Omar Farouq appeared for Tees Mart Inc, while counsels Hasan Azim, Mahfuzur Rahman Milon and Md Saiful Islam Saif argued for BIFC at the hearing.