Dhaka: The White Paper Committee has identified multiple dominant channels of corruption, including banking loan scams, misappropriation of loans, and politically motivated unviable projects. These findings reveal a wide-ranging and deep-rooted manifestation of corruption during the deposed Awami League regime, as detailed in a report unveiled today. According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, the report was formally presented to the media by Dr. Debapriya Bhattacharya, the head of the White Paper Committee and Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD). The unveiling took place at the NEC conference room in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka, with other committee members in attendance. The report highlights systematic corrupt practices such as forced bank takeovers, illicit financial outflows, and the inflation of project costs, which have plagued the nation's governance and economic structures. Among the identified channels of corruption are banking loan scams and the misappropriation of loans, wh ere fraudulent practices in illusory bank loans were rampant. The report also sheds light on the abuse of state machinery for forced bank ownership takeovers. Additionally, the document highlights the laundering of ill-gotten money out of the country and the allocation of resources to politically motivated, unviable projects, leading to inflated costs and delayed timelines. The report further details corruption in the awarding of contracts and project management, where nepotism and cronyism overshadowed merit-based appointments. The misallocation of public funds, bribery as a standard management practice, and tax exemptions benefiting elites were also noted as prevalent corrupt practices. The paper emphasizes the manipulation of supply chains, insider information sharing, and collusive corruption that has led to unfair market conditions and inefficiencies. The White Paper identifies the banking sector as the most corruption-ravaged, followed by the physical infrastructure and energy and power sectors. Infor mation and Communication Technology (ICT) was also marked as a corruption-affected sector due to its operational and technological novelty. This extensive list of corrupt practices calls for urgent systemic reforms and robust accountability mechanisms to restore governance integrity and economic resilience, as recommended by the paper. The findings underscore the critical need for transparency and accountability to combat the entrenched corruption that has marred the nation's development.
