...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since 1981. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide...yesterday blasted the World Bank for cancelling its credit agreement with the government to fund the Padma bridge project and said her government must build the bridge even if it had to be with its own money.
Speaking in parliament, she dismissed the World Bank's corruption allegations in the project. She said, "Their [World Bank's] blame is not acceptable at all."
Defending her government's actions taken following the World Bank's allegation, the premier said the moment the minister's involvement in the said corruption would be proved, the minister would be fired.
"All of a sudden the World Bank came up with allegations of corruption. But they could not provide any evidence. How could there be corruption when they had not released even a single penny for the project? "Therefore, I think it should be investigated and revealed who are behind it [cancellation of credit] and what are their objectives behind raising allegations of corruption," the premier said in reply to a question from independent MP Fazlul Azim.
She said she would speak more about it on June 8 during her winding up speech for the ongoing parliament session.
On Monday, Finance Minister AMA Muhith also made a statement in parliament about the issue.
The World Bank on Friday cancelled its funding for the project. It noted that it had "credible evidence corroborated by a variety of sources which points to a high-level corruption conspiracy among Bangladeshi government officials, SNC-Lavalin executives and private individuals in connection with the Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project".
Speaking about alternative funding sources for the project, Hasina said that Malaysia had submitted a proposal relating to the construction of the bridge. Her government, she added, would seek proposals from others too.
"Whatever the proposal is, it must be in line with the interest of our country and our people."
She said her government was not taking a loan from Malaysia. "They will construct the bridge with their money under BOOT [Built, Operate, Own and Transfer]. And they will take back their money within a certain period. We will not need to spend a single penny."
Hasina said the bridge could be built by other means as well, including Public Private Partnership.