Sanctions a tool against corrupt people: US team

The US is considering sanctions a tool against corrupt people, Foreign Secretary (FS) Masud Bin Momen said on Monday after his meeting with a visiting US anti-corruption team, led by Richard Nephew - coordinator of the US State Department's global anti-corruption activities.
In response to a question whether the issue of sanction against 11 Bangladeshi individuals, reported in a section of media, was discussed in the meeting, the FS said the issue was not raised, but the US side said 'plans are there to use sanction as a tool against corrupt people'.
Sanction against any individual was not mentioned, he added.
In response to another question, Mr Momen said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) did not receive any instruction over the recently reported allegation of laundering over US$ one billion by a big business group.
He noted that Bangladesh stressed the need for strengthening cooperation on mutual legal assistance among countries to curb money laundering and to repatriate laundered money.
Citing example, the FS said recently Bangladesh sought data from the Swiss government on deposits of Bangladeshis in the Swiss banks, but it expressed inability to provide the data.
Many small island countries have become safe havens for investing laundered money. They have enacted regulations, making access to such information very difficult, the Bangladesh side told the US team.
Bangladesh stressed enhanced coordination at international level to remove such barriers.
The meeting also discussed the issue of strengthening national integrity strategy to curb corruption.
"Our ministries are following the regulations of the national integrity strategy, but other stakeholders also need to follow those," Mr Momen opined.
The US team said in future, implementation of big investment and infrastructure projects need to be complied with the OECD guidelines, so that the projects that are environmentally harmful could be excluded.
The US is concerned over such projects, he hinted.
The US invited Bangladesh to join the global anti-corruption conference, which would be held in Georgia in December.
"We have accepted the invitation," the FS informed.

mirmostafiz@yahoo.com