Former finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal (Lotus Kamal) has led the country's economy in a dire crisis situation in the last five years. In this tenure, he didn’t go to the ministry, let alone tackle the economic crisis successfully. He didn’t hold meeting with the officials to solve the crisis. Even, he didn’t identify the economic crisis.
In the 53-years history of Bangladesh, he has shown the biggest failure as the finance minister. His tenure in last five years was nothing more than a history of failure. The amount of defaulted loans was increased seriously in his tenure. The money of people was drained out of the banks. Even, the directors brought out money from the banks by using their influence and lobby. However, as a fiancé minister, Mustafa Kamal didn’t take any steps in this regard.
In his tenure of five years, the dollar crisis has shown the most serious situation in the history of Bangladesh. The inflation has escalated to highest stage in last 11 years. The price hike was abnormal, in addition to increase in irregularities and corruption in overall economic sector. The money laundering has been increased a few times in this period. Lotus Kamal hasn’t been able to take steps to regain the trust of the investors for increasing employment and investment. He didn’t able to identify the cause of the crisis, let alone solve it.
On the one hand, even though he was not working in the ministry, he did not spare time to expand his personal business. It is reported that one of the 10 syndicates identified for exporting manpower to Malaysia belongs to Mustafa Kamal's brother-in-law Arif Hossain. This organization named Aces was originally Mustafa Kamal's own company. At that time he was in charge of planning minister. In order to remove the legal obstacles, the brother-in-law has been named in the papers. Similarly, during his tenure as finance minister, he issued two licenses for manpower export syndicate in Malaysia in the name of his wife Kashmiri Kamal and daughter Nafisa Kamal. The two companies are Orbital International and Orbital Enterprises. In addition to these two, there are Orbital Medical Center and Gulshan Medicare Limited.
In this regard, economist Dr. Mainul Islam said while he (Kamal) was the finance minister, he took all the government facilities and brought the country's economy to the brink of destruction. AHM Mustafa Kamal, who served as the finance minister in the last five years, is responsible for the extreme chaos in the country's financial sector.
Mainul Islam told The Bangladesh Pratidin, “There has been an unprecedented stagnation in the financial sector due to the failure of the finance minister in performing his duties properly. What I have been saying repeatedly is that he was the finance minister for the last five years, but was not really qualified for that post. It was a wrong choice. He has no experience in economics and was incompetent, inactive. So, he couldn't lead the ministry well. He could not leave any trace of competency. He was not even focused on his work. He did not make any effort to fulfill his duties. As a result, these disasters have occurred. He did not do the office properly. For this, many deep crises have been created in the country's economy. The entire responsibility goes to him as he was the finance minister.”
According to the data of Bangladesh Bank, in 2009, the defaulted loans in the banking sector were Tk 22 thousand crores. It was bearable till 2014. For the first time since 2014, it has exceeded Tk 50, 155 crore. Then he took charge as the minister of finance. And on the eve of leaving his duty of finance minister, the defaulted debt stood at Tk 1,55,000 crores. Similarly, inflation was in the range of 6 to 7 percent. And on the eve of AHM Mustafa Kamal's resignation, inflation has reached close to 10 percent, which is highest in last 11 years. During this time, the level of money laundering also increased at an unusual rate. Due to the inability to manage the supply and market of dollars, the worst dollar crisis in the history has taken place in the country.
Professor Birupaksha Paul of the Department of Economics of the State University of New York at Courtland wrote an article in The Daily Prothom Alo on September 7 of 2023 warning about the then finance minister. There he said the finance minister of Bangladesh is a man of ‘extraordinary ability’ who runs the most important office of the government in the least amount of time. If he was not a great man, the government would not have kept him in this place. He is the originator of the world's longest recorded budget speech.
There he wrote, “In last August 31, Mustsafa Kamal said, ‘Those who say country’s economy is not in good condition, don’t understand the economy at all.’ The comment like this of a finance minister was dangerous and arrogant. He is an accountant and has no ‘academic background’ in economy. But, from his comment, it seemed like he understands everything about our economy. If he don’t like the analysis or opinion of the renowned economists with higher degrees in economy, and says they don’t understand the economy, it would entail negative impact on the livelihood of people like us who live in abroad, if his comment like this reaches to the foreign employers.”
In the same way, regarding whether a minister can make a big business in the name of his wife and children, TIB Trustee Board member Abul Momen has told The Bangladesh Pratidin that a culture has started in our country that ministers are the ones who break the rules. It sends a wrong message to the common people. At the same time corrupt and dishonest people are encouraged. It is not possible to reduce our corruption if we cannot get out of it.
Meanwhile, Mustafa Kamal has built a 20-storey building with the approval of 14-storeys in Gulshan of the capital. 6 floors above 14 floors have been extended by altering the design. Recently, former finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has built a huge building by combining plots No. 59 and 60 adjacent to Gulshan Avenue in Gulshan Circle No. 1 of the capital, although the upper 6 floors of the 20-storey building have been extended by altering the design. After expanding the building, his two daughters applied to the RAJUK on behalf of the former minister. However, RAJUK has discussed the matter several times but has not yet approved it due to legal complications.
According to RAJUK sources, Kashfi Kamal and Nafisa Kamal, two daughters of Ahmad Mustafa Kamal, applied to RAJUK on December 29 of 2021 to get approval for this building in Gulshan. In the application, approval is sought for upward extension of 6 floors over 14 floors with penalty. The matter was then taken up in RAJUK’s five-member high level Building Construction (BC) Committee. In a meeting of the committee on February 3 last year, it was said that 14 floors with three basements have been approved in the existing plot. So currently, to get the approval for the upward expansion, the permission of the land wing of RAJUK the permission of the fire service department, the layout design of the engineer and architect, the approval of the massive project of RAJUK and the certificate of the architectural engineering department regarding the structural suitability for the upward expansion must be taken. But he didn't take it.
In this context, prominent economist Dr. Jamaluddin Ahmed said, “As the finance minister, AHM Mustafa Kamal could not fulfill the expectations of the people of the country. He could not finish his first budget speech due to illness. Some of the finance ministers of the past were Chartered Accountants and done well as finance minister. Mustafa Kamal was also a Chartered Accountant. Maybe Abul Mal Abdul Muhith, M Saifur Rahman could have said better what he (Kamal) did to advance the country's economy.”
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