The White Paper Committee today said that during the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League’s tenure, 40 percent of the government’s development budget was wasted in the last 15 years.

The committee informed this in a briefing at the NEC conference room in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in the capital on Monday (December 2).

The White Paper Committee head and Distinguished Fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya said, “Our job is not to catch thieves but to describe the theft. The work is done with care. That’s why we use the word ‘draft’. Because new information is coming every day.”

The work we have done would have cost Tk 25 crore if it was done by foreign consultants. We did that work selflessly and sacrificed it for the country, he also said. 

Dr Debapriya said that the report was written by 12 people. It will take one to one and a half months to publish it. The draft report that we submitted was accepted as a “document” by the government. The White Paper Committee worked through inclusive discussions and public engagement.