The election to nine borrower directors of Grameen Bank board is likely to be delayed further by six more months due to procedural complexities that would take time to solve.
As the central bank has recently declined to hold the polls of its 12-member board within the stipulated time-frame that expires on October 5 this year, the government needs to bring some changes in the bank rules.
“We have no other option but to extend the deadline for holding the polls,” M Aslam Alam, secretary to the Bank and Financial Institutions Division, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
He said a chairman would be selected for leading the election commission for electing nine female borrower-directors of the bank. Last week, the government also decided to amend GB rules again as the central bank has declined to hold polls for picking new board members.
Quoting the central Bank, Finance Minister AMA Muhith, however, explained that being a regulatory body Bangladesh Bank (BB) expressed its unwillingness to hold the polls as it had feared that it would create a conflict of interest.
Regarding the issue of amending the Grameen Bank (Election of Directors) Rules 2014, the minister said: "We will have to write something else in place of Bangladesh Bank in the rules."
