The telecommunication regulator is going to hire an audit firm for the audit of mobile phone operator Banglalink, officials said.
The decision has recently been made by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), according to which, advertisements will be published in daily newspapers to appoint audit firms for the operator.
Audit firms for two other operators - Grameenphone and Robi – have been finalised earlier.
Grameenphone’s audit company has already started the process of audit and appointed additional manpower to execute the job.
However, the Grameenphone head office has not been visited yet by the audit firm as some issues still remain unresolved.
In 2011 an attempt to inspect Banglalink failed as the appointed auditor, Ahmed Zaker & Co, could not finish the work.
“Considering previous experience, this time the commission is very much serious about the audit of Banglalink,” said a BTRC official.
The government allocated Tk40.88 crore for the audit of different mobile phone operators this fiscal year.
A high-up of BTRC said appointing audit firms for Grameenphone and Robi would cost TK16.6 crore while a total of TK24.28 crore would be left for auditing of other operators.
An official said as the BTRC had enough money for auditing of different companies, it had decided to conduct audit of another mobile phone operator other than Grameenphone and Robi this year.
As part of the audit job, the auditors would enter into the billing systems of the operators and cross-check them with their taxation figures, actual subscribers number and figures of airtime along with seeing some other issues.
The BTRC on Oct 6 signed a deal with a chartered accountants company for conducting a second time audit of the market’s leading mobile phone operator Grameenphone.
After that officials said the regulator was also likely to sign a deal with Masih Muhith Haque & Co Chartered Accountants for running audit of Robi soon at a cost of Tk7.82 crore.
While talking to the Dhaka Tribune, an official of a mobile phone operator questioned why the BTRC was not taking intiative to audit some other operators.
He said the regulator should start the audit process of the country’s all six mobile phone operators concurrently as it had enough fund.
BTRC, however, said once the audits into Grameenphone and Robi were done, the regulator would initiate similar audit to other operators.
Earlier in 2011 the regulator had the Grameenphone audit done by a firm, which found the operator owed Tk3,034 crore to the government.
Later, the Grameenphone took the matter to the High Court and challenged the auditor appointing process, which still remains pending.