Gowhar to visit US over Padma loan revival: Muhith

Wednesday, September 5, 2012 Dr Gowhar Rizvi, foreign affairs adviser to the prime minister, will soon go to Washington DC to talk with the World Bank for reviving $1.2 billion Padma loan credit that was cancelled on June 29.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith told reporters at his Secretariat office on Wednesday.
The WB cancelled the loan for the biggest-ever infrastructure project in Bangladesh alleging a "corruption conspiracy".
In September last year, the global lender suspended the fund, saying that some Bangladeshi officials and executives of a Canadian company and some individuals were involved in the conspiracy.
Later, the WB in a letter to the government gave certain conditions for ensuring corruption-free implementation of the $2.97-billion project.
The conditions included removal of Syed Abul Hossain from office.
In the face of widespread criticism, the minister was removed from the ministry in December last year and was made information and communications technology minister.
Recently, a highly placed government source has said prime minister's Economic Affairs Adviser Mashiur Rahman has to resign to meet the last condition of the World Bank.
Mashiur too denied that he had anything to do with the corruption conspiracy, but said he would go if the government asked him to.