Bangladesh began on Wednesday investigating allegations that Nobel Prize winning microlender Grameen bank had illegally diverted aid funds after a Norwegian television documentary cast doubts about its tax records. Last year's documentary said Grameen, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, had for tax purposes shifted funds provided by Norway's aid agency in the 1990s from one legal entity to another.
The government appointed on Wednesday a committee to handle the investigation, officials said, and it will start work immediately. Newspapers said it had three months to submit a final report. "The investigation is not to malign any individual or agency but to clarify the confusion and dig out the truth," a senior Finance Ministry official said. The committee is headed by Dhaka University economics professor, A.K.M Monowaruddin Ahmed.
The documentary has generated criticism in Bangladesh and abroad of Yunus, whose bank has provided some $10 billion in small loans to individuals, mainly women, to fund businesses and help them escape poverty. Last week, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina accused Yunus of resorting to a "trick" to avoid paying taxes. Yunus has said he would welcome an investigation into the allegations to "bring the truth to the citizens of Bangladesh as soon as possible".
The government has no intention of suspending the bank's operations or taking control of it, Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Mhith said last week. The allegations come at a time when microlending faces political hostility in several developing countries including India where politicians have accused the bankers of profiteering from the poor.
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