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Add in Abul, get WB fund

Lead financier of Padma bridge advises govt to include him in list of corruption conspiracy accused

Rejaul Karim Byron
The World Bank has told Bangladesh that it would go for financing the Padma bridge project if former communications minister Syed Abul Hossain be on the list of accused in the corruption conspiracy case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission.
The assurance came during a meeting in Washington last week among the World Bank president, its executive director for Bangladesh and other high officials.
Mukesh N Prasad, the WB executive director, has informed Finance Minister AMA Muhith and Prime Minister's Foreign Affairs Adviser Gowher Rizvi of this stance of the global lender, according to a source at the ministry.
Mukesh had sat with the World Bank officials to urge them to start financing the bridge construction once the lender's external panel submits its report.
Led by Luis Moreno Ocampo, the panel is
assigned to review the probe into the graft allegation in the project
After a year-long enquiry into the allegation over the much-talked-about project, ACC sued seven people for conspiring to commit corruption.
The accused include former Bridges Division secre-tary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan but ex-minister Abul Hossain and ex-state minister Abul Hasan were left out.
World Bank President Jim Yong Kim told Mukesh that if the external panel gives a positive report, the lender would start the implementation arrangement for the funding the following day, a top government source told The Daily Star yesterday.
Gowher Rizvi declined to make any comment
On Thursday, Muhith also told reporters that the World Bank chief held meeting with Mukesh and some senior management officials a couple of days ago.
"He [Mukesh] got the impression that the WB president is very keen that the project should go ahead. They are waiting for the panel report," the minister said without going into details.
Meanwhile, an official of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) said there is no scope for the inclusion of Abul in the first informationreport (FIR).
Legal experts say additional names could be included in the list even after
the submission of the FIR. But the court will have to approve it.
The names could be included in the supplementary FIR through court, Mahboob Ahmad, a senior lawyer, told The Daily Star yesterday.
According to sources, the external panel through its January 9 letter to the ACC chairman made it clear that it would not go ahead with the financing unless the former minister is included in the list of accused.
The issue has long been a moot point between the ACC andthepanel.
The panel during its Dhaka visit in the first week of December had a heated argument with the ACC, when the anti-graft body said the inclusion of Abul in the list would cause a political uproar.
Luis Moreno Ocampo, head of the three-member panel of experts, was so furious that he walked out of a meeting with the ACC, said a source at the ACC.
The letter also said there is enough evidence to implicate Abul.
A finance ministry official said the WB funding to the project could falter again due to the persistingAbul issue.
In September 2011, the World Bank said if Abul is removed from the communications ministry it would finance the project. But the government did not agree.
On Thursday, the finance minister also urged the WB to give a quick decision about
the financing.
The finance minister also said if the WB does not eventually agree to finance the project the government would go ahead with other co-financiers -- Asia Development Bank and Japan International CooperationAgency.
But an official from a cofinancier said: "It would not be possible. If the World Bank does not agree ultimately the agreement with Bangladesh will break down ineffective. "
"If the WB does not want to finance the project for the corruption allegation, the cofinanciers might also not be interested to make any new commitment as governance is a key condition before they agree to finance any project."
The co-financiers — ADB, Jica andWB—sat in Manila last November to prepare a draft for the arrangement of quick implementation of the project.
But the process did not go too far as Abul was not included in the FIR, said the official.
The World Bank had cancelled its $1.2 billion funding on June 29,2012, saying it had proof of a "corruption conspiracy" involving Bangladeshi officials, executives of a Canadian firm and some individuals.
The global lender on September 21 decided to revive the loan after Bangladesh agreed to the bank's terms and conditions.