When bankers turn bandits

Shahidul Haque Khan, a lifelong bachelor, lives a solitary life in his own duplex house facing a small garden of flower plants at Indira Road, Dhaka, enjoying a tranquil life. He passes his waking hours reading books and magazines and watching programmes aired by different television channels. He goes to bed never before 2-30 in the morning. Hardly there is a good movie, in Bengali, Hindi or English, he has not watched or a talk-show in television he has missed or a book by a brilliant author he has not read. A religious man with profound knowledge in banking and finance, he has a limited number friends and shuns those who are intellectually poor or financially dubious. He retired as Managing Director of Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank back in 1995.
One month before his retirement date Mr. Shahidul Haque Khan was excited, thinking about a marvellous and relaxed retired life awaiting him. But he was shocked as an official from the ministry of finance telephoned informing him that the government had decided to offer him an extension of his job for two more years on contract basis. Mr. Khan felt penalised. He never applied for such a favour. Someone who knew about Mr. Khan's integrity and efficiency perhaps, on his own volition, approached the government for prolonging his service for the benefit of the bank. Mr. Khan made every possible effort to convince the government that he would dislike such an extension. At long last, the government realised: "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink". In the banking history of Bangladesh, Shahidul Haque Khan is perhaps the only banker who politely rejected the government's offer to retain his service after retirement.
There are hundreds of bankers like Shahidul Haque Khan in the banking sector of Bangladesh. There are, of course, other thousands of bankers whose only mission is to make money, by stealing or by taking bribes, at the expense of the banks they serve. They are very powerful; they can get anybody wrapped around their little fingers. Their promotions or the extension of their services after retirement are rather rewards they get from those who bestow favours and benefits for their past services.
But the wind now seems to be blowing a bit in a different direction. The authorities appear to be hanging tough. Protectors who turned predators or bankers who turned bandits or those who on the strength of their connections with the 'powerhouse' thought they were invincible are now the target of a new crackdown. The government, especially the central bank, undoubtedly deserves kudos.
The headline news of yesterday was: Kazi Faqurul Islam has been removed from the post of Managing Director of BASIC Bank Limited on the charges of negligence of duty and irregularities apart from the failure to protect the depositors' interests. The charges brought against the removed Managing Director include sanctioning a loan of Taka 500 million at the bank's Gulshan Branch in 2012.
In another development, Deputy Managing Director (DMD) of the same BASIC Bank Monaem Khan and his wife Sahana Parvin have been served notices from the Anticorruption Commission (ACC) to explain why charges of corruption should not be brought against them. Similar notices from ACC have also been served to the same bank's General Manager (GM) Mohammad Ali, his wife Ismat Ara and their son Abdul Momen Chowdhury. As reported in the news media, ACC in their preliminary investigations found that the DMD and the GM of BASIC Bank have made mountains of wealth in the forms of lands, apartments and costly cars worth millions of Taka. The BASIC Bank officials have been asked to explain how and from what sources they could accumulate such heaps of treasures. It was reported, quoting ACC source, that these bank officials made illicit fortunes by grabbing gratifications in exchange of  disbursing loans to dubious or fictitious persons and companies based on false and fabricated documents.
Well, such kinds of corruption do not surprise us after learning about all those gigantic scams where billions of Taka were swindled. Any corruption that involves less than a billion Taka does not nowadays stir the conscience of Bangladeshi people!
In my professional life, I came across many corrupt bankers at their senior levels. There was a General Manager I knew who would have been furious if the bribe meant for him were not of brand new notes wrapped up in decently decorated envelopes. But, they had some minimum ethical standards. Those corrupt bankers used to take money under their tables before or after the jobs were done; but in most cases they at least made sure that the bank's interests were not compromised, things were done within banking law and practice and no false documentations were made, at least in black and white. Giving loans to ghosts seems to have been a new trend in Bangladesh banking practices.
People become corrupt because the society is corrupt. Corrupt people enjoy abusing whatever power they have; they enjoy the thrill of exerting control and extract bribes from both the weak and the wicked. It is the culture of arrogance and unaccountability of bad leadership at the helm that turn ordinary people into criminals. Decent and honest people in such culture end up with two options: conform or be crushed. There are of course people of integrity, like Shahidul Haque Khan, who can't let them be carried away with the tide of the corrupt cultures. Unhappily for our society, such a Shahidul Haque Khan is always bullied and marginalised. Such a decent person is a freak, an oddball, an awkward crank who is not a team player - who is 'not one of us'.
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