Norway gives all-clear to Bangladesh-based Grameen Bank

LONDON - Norway has reportedly said that there are “no more unanswered questions” into claims that Bangladeshi micro-credit pioneer Grameen Bank’s Muhammad Yunus had wrongly diverted millions of dollars of aid money.

A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Oslo said that the matter had been thoroughly investigated and that it considered it to be closed.

“We are fully satisfied that no Norwegian money is missing or unaccounted for,” the BBC quoted the spokesman, as saying.

The spokesman said that it was agreed in 1998 that the bank should return money wrongly transferred from the Grameen Bank to Grameen Kalyan.

“We decided to re-examine the case after fresh attention to the cash diversion was made in a documentary,” the spokesman said.

“Again we wish to stress that there is no indication that Norwegian funds have been used for unintended purposes, or that Grameen Bank has engaged in corrupt practices or embezzled funds,” he added.

Earlier, a Danish documentary maker Tom Heinemann had alleged that Yunus and his associates had diverted nearly 100 million dollars of grant money to another company, Grameen Kalyan, which was not involved in micro-credit operations.

His documentary also claimed that after the Norwegian authorities raised objections to the alleged funds transfer, only about 30 million dollars was diverted back to Grameen Bank.

However, a statement by Grameen Bank had denied the allegations saying that they were “completely false”. (ANI)