Legal challenges continue to thwart the government’s attempts to take control over the board of directors of the Nobel-laureate micro-credit organisation Grameen Bank.
On March 30, the Bank and Financial Institutions Division sent a notice to the GB which said that the posts of the nine elected female directors of the micro-lender had become vacant since their three-year tenure had expired on February 7.
The notice also said that the chairman along with the two other directors nominated by the government would be sufficient to hold board meetings.
On April 6, Tahsina Khatun, one of the elected directors, filed a writ petition with the High Court challenging the legality of the government notice and seeking a stay.
Yesterday, Tahsina told the Dhaka Tribune: “The court directed the government to explain that matter within 10 days. But the finance division did not respond until yesterday.”
When asked about this, Bank and Financial Institutions Division Secretary M Aslam Alam said: “We have already given a reply to the court. We told the court that everything was done according to the Grameen Bank Law 2013.”
The Dhaka Tribune reporter relayed the secretary’s statement to Tahsina yesterday, and in reply she said that they had not yet got any word from the court regarding the government reply to her petition.
Secretary Aslam told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday: “The existing board of directors of Grameen Bank cannot make any big decision as the pro-Yunus female directors moved the High Court against the government, challenging the notice to vacate their posts.”
There was no other problems in holding a meeting because the four state-appointed directors including the chairman are good enough for a quorum, the secretary added.
He, however, admitted that there had been no progress in appointing a former district judge as the chief commissioner for holding elections to fill up the nine vacated female director posts, as per the 2013 law.
The Grameen Bank Act was passed in Jatiya Sangshad in November 2013, ostensibly enabling the government to take full control of the bank’s board through an election.
Under this act, the government appointed three of the four members of the quorum that is running the bank until a new board is elected.
The government appointed Khondaker Muzammel Huq as the chairman.
Suraiya Begum, senior secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office, and Shah Alam Sarwar, managing director of the IFIC Bank, are the other two directors. The fourth member of the quorum is SM Mohiuddin, the acting managing director of the bank.
When the new board is elected, the government will revert to appointing just three of the 12 board members.
Usually, the 12-member board comprises nine borrower-directors elected every three years. The three government-nominated directors are also in the board, one of whom serves as the chairman.
Bank division Secretary Aslam said that the board had not been able to appoint a full time managing director either as the selection committee could not be formed because of the pending writ petition at the High Court.
Tahsina pointed out that there had been no meetings of the board of directors since April.
“The borrower-shareholders are the real owners of the bank. A board where there is no representation of the borrowers cannot be a board of the Grameen Bank,” she added.