October 13, 2002	Sunday	Sha'aban 6, 1423

DHAKA, Oct 12: Only one-quarter of the more than 36 billion dollars in aid Bangladesh has received since 1971 has actually gone to the poor, a research paper said on Saturday.

“Since independence in 1971, 75 percent of the total aid received was plundered and the poor, who are the actual target group, were deprived,” said the study by Dhaka University professor Abul Barkat.

“The foreign assistance failed to play a vital role in the country’s economy that could be of welfare to the people,” it said.

“Rather it acted as a medium of economic and political criminalisation through accumulation of money in the hands of the vested quarters.”

Barkat said that of the 36.33 billion dollars in aid Bangladesh has received since its inception in 1971, foreign consultants took away 25 percent while Bangladeshi politicians, bureaucrats, commission agents and contractors got another 30 percent.

Another 20 percent of the aid earmarked for the poor went into the hands of local elites, the study found.

Major donors including the World Bank have in the past two years changed their system of aid for Bangladesh, replacing usual lumpsum two billion-dollar grants with assistance for select projects.—AFP