Grameen Bank Commission winds up without giving final report

The Grameen Bank Inquiry Commission winded up its tenure without filing a complete report on the microcredit lender and its 48 other organisations bearing the Grameen tag.    The delay in filing the report has been attributed to the lack of data collection.   A source close to the commission told the Dhaka Tribune a complete report is likely to be submitted in early August.   “We closed the Grameen Bank commission temporary office in the city’s Eskaton area as per directives from higher authorities,” an official of the commission yesterday said, requesting not to be named.   He added that all information the commission had about Grameen Bank (GB) and its 48 other organisations would be sent to Bangladesh Bank (BB) for preservation and not for disclosure to the media.   Sources in the banking division of BB said a section of the final report on Grameen Bank and its concerns was unofficially sent to the Financial Institutions Division for scrutiny but the commission will hand over the report officially to the finance minister after he returns home.    The minister will come back to Dhaka on July 23 from Tokyo. The banking division spent a total of Tk5m on the operation of the Grameen Bank Inquiry Commission.   The commission in its proposal also sought Tk15m for arranging seminars and attending programmes abroad.   The banking division however rejected those proposal, official sources said.     The government formed a four-member commission in last May to review the activities of GB. The commission headed by former Secretary Mamun-ur-Rashid submitted an interim report in February.   Later, the commission’s tenure was extended to July 20.   As per the commission’s recommendation, a workshop on Grameen Bank was supposed to take place, but the government later cancelled it following protests by civil society members and staff and directors of GB.   The commission also recommended suspending the licence of the country’s largest mobile operator Grameenphone, which is controlled and mostly owned by Norwegian telecom giant Telenor and Bangladesh’s Grameen Telecom because of the number of shares owned.