Bangladesh Telecommunication Company Ltd (BTCL) is facing a huge pile of 6,813 unresolved audit objections from the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, which has accumulated since 1972.
The standing committee of public undertakings will hold a meeting today, where the issues will be placed. The meeting is also expected to discuss unresolved objections of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).
Sources in the state-owned company said the erstwhile Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) had 14,066 unresolved audit objections until 2007.
The resolving process got momentum with the army-backed caretaker government taking power in the year. It helped the authorities reduce the number by more than half.
Dhaka Tribune obtained working paper of today’s meeting, which showed that BTTB in 2007 was able to resolve 7,884 objections which involved Tk2,756.52 crore.
In that year BTTB also faced a new flow of 1,465 objections. However, as the board had resolved a lot of objections, the number didn’t increase that much.
The next year BTTB received 443 new objections from the CAG but resolved 1,376.
From July 2008 the BTTB turned to BTCL. But the new company continued the resolving process.
In 2008 a total of 577 objections were resolved with receiving 161 new objections.
But after next two years the whole picture started to change. In FY2009-10, BTCL got 300 new objections and could resolve some 248 objections involving Tk17.56 crore.
In FY2010-11, the state-owned company resolved 188 objections and received 651 new objections.
According to the working paper, a total of 19,927 objections were resolved during 1972 to 2011 out of 26,740 objections.
BTCL acting managing director Swapan Kumar Saha declined to make any comment on the matter saying he has just taken the post. Swapan Kumar Saha was made BTCL acting MD one month ago.
He, however, said: “It has been a problem for long. We can’t change it overnight.”
Official sources said unresolved objections are mainly with telephone bills as the expenditure was larger than the budget.
Objections are also with appointing casual workers as due process was not followed, payment of unapproved bonus on different occasions and irregularities in maintenance work.
According to a senior CAG official, around 7,000 audit objections is still a huge number for a single company while the new trends signal it will increase further.
BTRC is facing eight objections which involve Tk17.01 crore. Out of them, there is a case of Ekushe TV since the private television channel has not yet deposited Tk15.08 crore as equipment, terminal and licence fees.
