The planned reforms in Grameen Bank could not be executed due to the cases filed against government moves by pro-Yunus directors, Finance Minister AMA Muhith has said.
The minister held Muhammad Yunus, the founder and former managing director of the bank, for the impasse.
These views came from the minister at the launching function of two financial working papers at the Secretariat in Dhaka yesterday.
Muhith said that the development of Grameen Bank (GB) has been hanging in the balance because of some conflicts of interest over the last five years.
“We want Grameen Bank’s development, but Prof Yunus does not want that.”
The minister lauded Yunus’s efforts for institutionalising micro-credit by establishing the GB, but also critised the Nobel laureate saying “he became the GB himself.”
When contacted, pro-Yunus GB director Tahsina Khatun told the Dhaka Tribune: “Grameen Bank used to operate smoothly without the government’s intervention. We [elected female members of the board of directors] are the legal directors of GB until an election is held.”
Legal challenges have continued to bar the government’s attempts to take control over the board of directors of the Nobel-laureate micro-credit organisation.
On March 30 this year, 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 filed a writ petition with the High Court challenging the legality of the government notice and seeking a stay.
One of the two books that Muhith unveiled yesterday is an annual publication on the state-owned banks and financial institutions and the other is titled National Strategy for Preventing Money Laundering and Combatting Financing of Terrorism 2015-17.
The minister said: “We came out of the Financial Action Task Force’s grey list in February last year because of good performance in tackling money laundering ... The anti-money laundering activities will continue according to the recommendations of the Asian Pacific Group [APG].
He also said: “We have prepared a three-year strategic paper on the action plan for 15 ministries and divisions regarding anti-money laundering activities.”
The national strategy on preventing money laundering and terrorist financing says that the 15 government offices will implement 138 actions under 11 strategies outlined in the ongoing mutual evaluation assessment of the APG on Bangladesh.
As per action plans, the Finance Ministry will ensue appropriate legal frameworks for asset recovery at home and aboard by December. The ministry will also ensure that no salaries of employees are paid in cash from June 2017.
Yesterday, the finance minister also said that the country’s insurance sector was the most vulnerable with corruption and irregularities still prevailing.
