ISLAMABAD - Senior officials of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) have been found allegedly involved in a mega corruption scam of approximately Rs9 billion as they have been doling out loans to defaulters of other banks from NBP's branch in Bangladesh's capital city, The Nation has learnt.
Documents available with this correspondent reveal that as of September 30, 2013, the bank has suffered a loss of Rs9 billion because of sham loans at NBP's branch in Dhaka, as these were given to people who were already defaulters and had submitted fake security documents.
Group Chief of the National Bank, Kausar Iqbal Malik, says the case is lying with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and bank would only move after FIA comes out with some findings.
Moreover, the bank administration has received many complaints from Bangladesh and Pakistan regarding a senior official, occupying the rank of Senior Executive Vice President (SEVP). He is allegedly directly involved in this corruption. Well-placed sources in NBP say that the bank has started provisioning (filling the loss from bank's profit) of these defaulted loans upon orders from the high ups.
Off late, the Transparency International also wrote to the bank's management that NBP Overseas Management, comprising two most senior officers posted in USA and Bangladesh, have knowingly approved loans in Bangladesh to defaulters of other banks in that country. “The accounts of 2012 confirm that NBP will suffer loss of over Rs9 billion.”
Upon this compliant, the FIA was asked to investigate the issue. When this correspondent contacted the NBP group chief, he maintained that case was with the FIA.
A senior official of NBP said that one Mr Zubair is performing his duties as Senior Executive Vice President at the bank headquarters and he is allegedly involved in this scam. He maintained that Zubair is trying hard for his extension which would be based on the findings of FIA in this case. He said no doubt almost Rs9 billion loan was defaulted in Bangladesh branches and the bank is in problem due to that default.
The official said that FIA is investigating the case but bank did not launch any kind of in-house inquiry. NBP official added that the bank lodged FIRs against Bangladeshi nationals who were employees of bank, but those who actually held the power and authority have been spared. Board of Directors of NBP would take action after completing the investigation of FIA, the official held.
Regarding this Rs9 billion scam, the official maintained that around 14billion Bangladeshi Taka was released to defaulters as loan and a major portion of these loans was never returned. He said that the loans were issued without proper scrutiny of documents and bank guarantees.