ACC to probe wastage of money behind Hasina’s foreign trips, doctorate degrees

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has decided to investigate whether there was any ‘wastage of money’ behind deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s foreign trips and doctorate degrees from universities abroad.

ACC Director General (Prevention) Md. Akhter Hossain gave this information to journalists at the ACC head office on Thursday.

According to the ACC’s allegations, whenever Sheikh Hasina went on foreign trips, she used to rent Biman Bangladesh Airlines aircrafts with government money. She used to take large convoy of entourage with her.

During her 16 consecutive years in power, she attended almost every session of the United Nations as the head of government. Every time, she went to New York with a large convoy.

In 2015, she attended the 70th General Assembly and the UN Special Summit on Sustainable Development in New York with a delegation of 227 people.

In 2014, the number was 178 at the 69th General Assembly and 134 in 2013.
The complaint states that the ousted prime minister used to travel from Bangladesh to various countries on Biman’s state-of-the-art Boeing 777 and 787 series aircraft.

In the last five years from 2019 to mid-2024, the state-owned airline has operated 48 VVIP flights at a cost of Taka 250 crore.

Sheikh Hasina spent about Taka 200 crore on these trips. On September 18, 2021, she left for New York on Biman Bangladesh Airlines VVIP flight BG-1902 from Helsinki’s Vantaa International Airport.
According to some sources related to Biman, an additional foreign currency equivalent of Taka 7 crore was spent to cover all the expenses of the VVIP chartered flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines including landing in Finland instead of flying directly from Dhaka to New York and two days of landing charges there.

Biman owes about Taka 50 crore to the government until 2023.

Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has received doctorate degrees from various universities. Some notable doctorate degrees which were obtained by spending the country’s government money by hiring lobbyists are Tripura University in India, Catholic University of Brussels in Belgium, and Viswa-Bharati University in India.

Almost all the medals and degrees she received were obtained at massive expenses or in exchange for agreements that are contrary to national interests.