The committee on Jubok will sit this week to review the proposal it received from the law ministry on its report, officials said.
The committee will also speed up its next course of action against the multi-level marketing company that defrauded tens of thousands of its clients, they added.
On August 21, 2014, the ministry of commerce (MoC) formed a nine-member inter-ministerial committee to find out ways on how to return funds to the clients of Jubo Karmasangsthan Society (Jubok) that embezzled deposits.
The committee, headed by joint secretary Abdul Mannan, prepared the report in December last year after several rounds of meetings.
The report was sent to the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs (MoLJPA) for its opinion. The law ministry later gave its opinion on the report the commerce ministry prepared, officials said.
"We've got a specific proposal from the law ministry on the report prepared by the committee. The committee will sit sometime this week to review this," the joint secretary, who is convener of the committee, told the FE last week without elaborating.
Senior secretary of the MoC Hedayetullah Al Mamoon will preside over the meeting.
The government formed two commissions to investigate the forgery by Jubok. In March, 2013 the Jubok commission, headed by former bureaucrat Rafiqul Islam, submitted a report to the ministry of finance suggesting appointment of an administrator for its better management.
It also recommended amendment to criminal law, money laundering act, and the inquiry act of 1956. However, the government followed a go-slow policy in responding to the recommendations, officials said.
Prior to that, the government formed another commission headed by former governor of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) Mohammed Farashuddin.
The committee has been formed to implement the suggestions of the two commissions. Later, the inter-ministerial panel prepared a report in light of the suggestions of the commissions, an official said.
The cooperative society had over 300,000 members. The government had suspended the operations of Jubok in 2006 after allegation of conducting banking activities "illegally" by taking deposits from its members.
Jubok invested in banks, housing, telecommunications, real estate development, tourism, health, agriculture, education and broadcast media.
A government commission had eariler recommended returning money to the Jubok's clients--over Tk 25 billion--by selling the existing assets of the multi-level company.
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