Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) yesterday said that the government and the businesspeople concerned will have to take the responsibility for the country’s shady gold trade, which is mostly conducted with smuggled gold. In a statement, Dr Iftekharuzzaman, Executive Director of the global anti-graft watchdog, said that in absence of any policy and guideline that is marked by intentional negligence in performing due duties by the officials concerned, the gold trade in the country has been run for a long time with no transparency.
The TIB statement said that the drives by the customs intelligence and investigations department should be conducted on all organisations involved in gold trade in equal manner instead of targeting any specific organisation. The drives should also be carried out through maintaining proper legal procedures, the Transparency Internationa, Bangladesh statement added. The association of jewellers, instead of creating impediments against those drives by customs officials, should aid the customs intelligence to free the gold trade sector of our country from malpractice and smuggling, the statement said. The TIB also called for formulating a policy on gold import and trading policy for the country that will ensure transparent gold trading and business in the country.