DHAKA – Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has announced measures to address a series of corruption scandals, including one involving her former household servant who has amassed a staggering US$34 million (S$45.6 million) fortune and now travels by helicopter.
Addressing reporters on July 14, Ms. Hasina acknowledged the country’s longstanding corruption issues. “Corruption is a longstanding problem,” she stated. “These messes must be cleaned up… We have been taking measures.
One particularly scandalous case involves her former household assistant, a low-level orderly, who previously served as a water-bearer at events. The media reported that this individual, identified as Mr. Jahangir Alam, nicknamed “Pani” or “water,” had leveraged his position to engage in lobbying, tender manipulation, and bribery, accumulating an enormous fortune.
“The man who worked as a peon in my house – he now owns 400,00,00,000 Taka (S$45.6 million),” Ms. Hasina remarked. “He can’t move without a helicopter. How has he earned so much money? I took action immediately after knowing this.”
To put the scale of the corruption into perspective, the average Bangladeshi would need over 13,000 years to earn the equivalent of Mr. Alam’s fortune, given the nation’s GDP per capita of US$2,529 according to the World Bank.
The report of the fat-cat servant quickly spread on social media, with opposition parties using it to highlight what they describe as endemic corruption within Ms. Hasina’s administration. Mr. A.K.M. Wahiduzzaman, a spokesman for the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), criticized the lack of prosecution for the servant’s crimes, stating, “If Sheikh Hasina’s peon could make such an astronomical amount of money, you can guess how much his boss has made.”
The revelations come amid a series of high-profile corruption scandals that have plagued Ms. Hasina’s government since May. These include probes into former national police chief Benazir Ahmed, who is accused of amassing an illegal multi-million dollar fortune, and former army chief Aziz Ahmed, who also faces graft allegations. Additionally, the anti-corruption commission has seized properties and frozen bank accounts of top tax officials allegedly involved in siphoning off tens of millions of dollars.
Furthermore, a police operation last week uncovered a gang of civil servants illegally selling recruitment papers before job tests, reportedly generating millions of dollars. Ms. Hasina, 76, secured her fourth consecutive general election victory in January, albeit in a vote marked by a widespread boycott and a major crackdown against her political opponents. These corruption scandals have put her more than 15-year-long rule under intense scrutiny.