Fin min extends Agrani MD job ignoring BB Violates bank co act by not taking BB nod [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Fin min extends Agrani MD job ignoring BB Violates bank co act by not taking BB nod

Local July 10, 2015

Violating the bank law, the finance ministry on Thursday reappointed Syed Abdul Hamid as managing director of Agrani Bank for one year without taking approval from Bangladesh Bank which was against his job extension for his alleged corruption.
As per the Bank Company (amendment) Act 1991, the ministry must take BB approval for appointment or extension of job tenure of MD and CEO in any state-owned commercial bank.
Finance ministry officials said Hamid was reappointed despite opposition from the BB because of his strong lobbying with government high ups.
A BB executive director told New Age on Thursday that the finance ministry grossly violated the bank company act by appointing Hamid without taking BB approval.
The central bank recently gave approval to reappointment of Sonali Bank managing director Pradip Kumar Dutta after the finance ministry put forward a recommendation for him, he said.
Another senior official of the BB said, ‘The appointment of Hamid is a clear manifestation of how the government with political influence is affecting the state-owned banks. It seems the government is yet to learn any lesson from the scams like Sonali Bank-Hallmark and Basic Bank scam.’
The ministry in the last month recommended that the central bank should reappoint Hamid for one more year, but the central bank after going through the files of Hamid requested the finance ministry on Wednesday to give a second thought about him.
‘As soon as the BB requested the ministry to give a second thought, the ministry hurriedly gave reappointment to Hamid,’ said another BB official.
The BB was considering not giving approval for Hamid for his alleged involvement in the Moon Group financial scam of around Tk 300 crore.
The central bank inspection team in 2014 found that the state-owned bank disbursed around Tk 300 crore in loan to Moon Group owned by businessman Mizanur Rahman for the construction of three buildings with unapproved structural designs while the Group shifted the loan to other sector without constructing the buildings.
The BB unearthed that Hamid was involved in the financial scam directly.
In a recent investigation, Agrani Bank’s board of directors also found involvement of Hamid in the Moon Group financial scam.
The audit committee of Agrani Bank had conducted the investigation in line with BB directives and found that the 12 allegations of the
central bank against Hamid were appropriate.
Agrani Bank chairman Zaid Bakht told New Age on Thursday that the finance ministry had given its consent on Thursday to reappoint Hamid.
Asked why the finance ministry reappointed Hamid violating the law, he said that the central bank was yet to give any opinion about the matter, so Agrani Bank thought that the BB was now positive.
It is a tripartite decision involving Agrani Bank board, finance ministry and BB to reappoint the managing director, he said.
He said, ‘Some allegations of corruption were raised against the Agrani Bank’s MD. But, it is a normal phenomenon as such type of allegation was raised against majority of the banks’ high ups.’
Another senior official of the BB said there was no tripartite decision about the Hamid’s extension and the decision was unilaterally taken by the commerce ministry.
Banking Division secretary M Aslam Alam and Agrani Bank MD Hamid could not be reached despite repeated attempts over phone.