World Bank to assist NBR in recovering illicit funds

The World Bank has assured the government of its support to the National Board of Revenue, or NBR, in boosting the capacity of its officials through training and assisting efforts to recover laundered funds from abroad.

Since countries like Singapore, Dubai, and the UK, frequent destinations for money laundering from Bangladesh, are signatories to the World Bank, the NBR has sought the development partner’s help in gathering documentary evidence, conducting analysis, and recovering the laundered money.

The matter came up during discussions between the World Bank and the NBR’s Central Intelligence Cell, or CIC, at the Revenue Building in Agargaon on Thursday afternoon.

Emile Johannes Marie Van Der Does De Willebois, the bank’s lead financial sector specialist for the Stolen Asset Recovery initiative, and Financial Sector Specialist Sophie Dong pledged full cooperation in the recovery efforts, said CIC Director Md Masudur Rahman Masud.

“Emile is primarily a stolen asset recovery expert. She told us that a tax recovery specialist working with the World Bank will sit with us soon,” Masud said.

He added that the discussion also focused on enhancing the CIC’s capacity through training and emphasised the necessity for World Bank support to make the forensic lab operational, which is currently non-functional due to a lack of personnel.

“We often hear rumours about assets held by certain individuals, but we can’t act without clear evidence. This is especially true when it comes to recovering funds laundered abroad,” Masud explained.

He stressed the importance of international cooperation, pointing out that the countries frequently mentioned in laundering cases.

“We have requested the World Bank’s assistance in recovering the funds from those countries,” he said.

Earlier on Tuesday, the World Bank had made similar assurances to the Anti-Corruption Commission, or ACC, regarding collaboration on illicit fund recovery.

ACC Director General (Prevention) Md Akhter Hossain told reporters at the time: “We discussed how they could help us gather documentary evidence from countries where our funds are laundered. They said that collecting such evidence is a continuous process and quite difficult without cooperation from the relevant countries.”

The World Bank will engage with the relevant law-enforcing agencies in the countries involved in money laundering and discuss how to facilitate the recovery of stolen assets, he said.

The World Bank said they would maintain communication and continue offering assistance, he added.

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