Says committee chief on Grameen Bank
It is not a probe against any individual but a review on institutional, economical and legal perspectives of Grameen Bank and its sister concerns, said chief of the government’s Review Committee on Grameen Bank.
“We will submit an analytical report to the government after pointing out the weaknesses, if there is any, of the organisations judging from different angles,” said AK Manow-war Uddin Ahmed, the committee chief.
He said they would make some suggestions to resolve the shortcomings of the organisations within the stipulated time, in three months.
“I will contact my colleagues of the committee tomorrow [Thursday] for holding a meeting soon,” he added.
The Review Committee on Grameen Bank has been entrusted with several tasks including examination of the rationale behind the rate of interest the microcredit organisation charges from the borrowers.
The five-member committee formed on Tuesday is headed by Prof Manow-war Uddin Ahmed of economics department at Dhaka University.
Members of the committee are Deputy Governor Bangladesh Bank Nazrul Huda, former deputy comptroller and auditor general Syeda Rokeya Deen, former banker RM Devnath and Supreme Court lawyer Mohsin Rashid.
To assist the review body, Bangladesh Bank has been asked to conduct a special audit on Grameen Bank, said a government circular issued yesterday.
The terms of reference (TOR) of the committee as contained in the circular include submission of a report after investigating the Norwegian authorities’ version on the news aired by Norwegian Television regarding transfer of funds from Grameen Bank to Grameen Kalyan.
The committee will also prepare a list of all organisations of the Grameen family, and look into Grameen Bank’s involvement with those organisations such as Packages Corporation, the TOR said.
It will examine in detail the bank’s financial or executive chief’s personal involvement with these organisations to know the actual situation. If any irregularity is found, it will recommend what to do in this regard.
Moreover, the review body will prepare a report on the rate of interest, the method of fixing it and rules and ways of realising interest on the loans from and savings with Grameen Bank.
And it will carry out a comparative analysis of the rate of interest and other charges realised by the micro-credit organisations who got licence from the Micro-credit Regulatory Authority. If any irregularity or exceptional situation is found in case of Grameen Bank, it will make recommendations for removing those.
The TOR said the committee has to make an overall report with recommendations on the control, management, transparency and accountability of Grameen Bank in the light of the Micro-credit Regulatory Authority Act, 2006.
The circular said the review committee might take opinions and hear witnesses from different quarters including members of the civil society involved in micro-credit activities.
It provided the background of formation of the committee, and mentioned that the microcredit programme of Grameen Bank has become known worldwide, and the bank and its managing director won Nobel Prize in 2006.
The circular also said since the establishment of Grameen Bank, its activities were not evaluated. Reports about the bank appeared in the media recently. Against this backdrop, the government formed the committee to know the overall management and other aspects of the bank.
