A portion of the money illegally transferred abroad may be brought back by February, according to Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed.

Speaking to journalists after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Public Procurement at the Secretariat on Tuesday, he expressed cautious optimism. He did not, however, mention the exact amount expected to return.

“The people involved in money laundering know all the tricks. It takes time to bring funds back through legal channels. But some progress has been made. We are in talks with a number of legal institutions. By February, part of the funds may come, while preparations are being made for the rest,” the adviser explained.

He added that no government could bypass the formalities of asset recovery. “You can’t just call a Swiss bank and tell them to release the money. It doesn’t work that way. The process must follow international legal norms. We have identified 11–12 cases as top priority, and additional cases involving amounts over 200 crore taka are also under review.”

When asked if the next government would continue this initiative, Salehuddin responded: “They will have no choice but to continue. Without the procedures in place, the money will never return. International practice requires consistency in this process.”

He also noted that some assets have already been frozen and that the authorities possess information on the accounts, locations of funds, and even the passports used by the launderers. “The remaining steps will take time,” he said.

Addressing concerns that some advisers were allocating extra funds to their home constituencies, he dismissed the claims: “No, no. These projects were designed long ago.”

On a separate issue, when asked about a Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) report showing that 3 out of every 10 families suffer from malnutrition or food insecurity, Salehuddin acknowledged: “Yes, we have a nutrition gap, especially among children and mothers. We are trying to improve this as much as possible.”

He emphasized that the country’s diet is heavily dependent on rice and needs more protein: “We need more balanced food. Eggs, in particular, are essential.”