Aduit Objection
BTRC chief criticises CAG for saying telecom regulator top wrongdoer
The telecom regulator on Tuesday criticised the Comptroller and Auditor General for saying that the BTRC had the highest financial irregularities among the government agencies.
‘The CAG might have his own reasons, but the way he interpreted that the BTRC had highest financial irregularities could give a misleading picture to people,’ Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission chairman Sunil Kanti Bose said in a press briefing at his office.
The CAG, Masud Ahmed, on the
day before said that BTRC topped in financial irregularities among the 17 audit reports his office had placed to the president.
The CAG office conducted special audit on the BTRC from 2001-2002 to 2009-2010 fiscal years that revealed that the government lost Tk 2,628 crore in revenue because of several financial irregularities.
When asked if he thought the audit report was incorrect, Sunil Kanti said, ‘BTRC is not totally perfect and we do have our limitations. But the audit findings we are talking about can be resolved in the Public Accounts Committee of parliament. So before that, it would not be fair to say that we are the top in irregularities,’ he claimed.
He said there might be some information gap between the CAG and BTRC about the special audit which said the government lost Tk 2,628 crore in revenue because of several financial irregularities of BTRC.
‘BTRC cannot directly communicate with the CAG office. It has to go through the telecom ministry,’ he said.
Replying to a question about the audit findings of irregularities in share transfer of Warid Telecom, he said, ‘There is no way you can say that the share transfer was illegal. Based on the CAG finding if the government thinks a third party audit can resolve the issue, we would welcome that but we cannot do that ourselves,’ he said.
The CAG report said the BTRC in different cases did not fine the illegal voice over internet protocol businesses and failed to collect spectrum charges, licence fees and share transaction fees as per its own rules.
-With New Age input
