"If you [TIB] don't take the report back, there will be processions against TIB in different districts and we will also take legal action," the minister said at a press conference.

The TIB launched its latest corruption index on July 5 where the LGRD and Cooperatives ministry came top in corruption. It alleged that the ministry accounts for Tk 208.9 crore out of a total of Tk 526.27 crore misappropriated at different ministries.

Claiming his ministry to be the most successful, Mannan Bhuiyan said, "The report is baseless, untrue and misleading and so we refuse to accept it."

Held at the ministry auditorium, the press conference was attended among others by State Minister Ziaul Haq Zia and TIB Research Director SI Lasker.

The minister said he wonders how come they come to the conclusion on such a sensitive issue like corruption, basing only on newspaper reports.

"We successfully completed 98 per cent of the total development projects last year. Of all the ministries, we top the project implementation index," he observed.

"They have published the report just to belittle our achievements," Bhuiyan said adding that by preparing a baseless corruption index the TIB has in fact humiliated the entire nation.

Referring to the honorary chairman of TIB, the minister said, "Who is Mozaffar Ahmed? He was a minister during the military regime of late president Ziaur Rahman. Allegations of corruption had been there against him as well."

The TIB representative faced a volley of questions from the ministers and some reporters at the press conference.

At one stage, Ziaul Haq Zia called the TIB official a moron as he was struggling to reply to the questions regarding method of their research, source of the TIB funding and motive for the report.

In his speech, Mannan Bhuiyan said the TIB in its report has ignorantly described institutions including district administration office, UNO, Unnayan Kartripakkha as belonging to the LGRD ministry.

"Union Parishad has been one of the most dedicated institutions since independence. Just when it needs to be encouraged the most, TIB has branded them corrupt," said the minister.

He said the motive behind the TIB report was nothing but to taint the country and present it as a failed state.

"We want to know the source of their funding and whom they are accountable to for their works," he added.

Describing the newspaper reports on corruption as baseless, he said they have formed a monitoring cell to investigate corruption allegations against different officials of the ministry.