October 04, 2007	Thursday	Ramazan 21, 1428

DHAKA, Oct 3: Bangladesh is planning to sign a deal with Britain to recover hundreds of millions of dollars siphoned off by corrupt politicians and stashed abroad, an official said on Wednesday.

“We will strike a deal with Britain’s Scotland Yard to bring back the money siphoned off illegally by the country’s corrupt bigwigs,” said Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) secretary Mukhlesur Rahman.

“We are doing the homework and setting up the strategy. The British authorities said they would help us bring the money back to Bangladesh,” he said.

Media reports estimate several billion dollars were stolen by politicians and laundered abroad during 16 years of democratic rule that ended in October last year.

The temporary government has pledged to clean up Bangladesh’s notoriously corrupt politics before reinstating democracy with elections by late next year.

“We have information that the stolen money was siphoned off to the countries of Singapore, Dubai, Malaysia, Britain, the United States, Canada and Australia,” added Rahman.—AFP