Parliamentary panel unhappy with Teletalk’s ‘unconvincing’ explanation over charges of irregularities

A parliamentary committee is unconvinced by the explanation from Teletalk about reported irregularities in the state-run mobile-phone operator.

The standing committee on post, telecommunications and information technology ministry discussed the Teletalk issue on Monday.

According to the minutes of the meeting, the panel had sought explanations from Teletalk over several newspaper reports on the illegal call termination by the operator, use of its SIM cards in illegal VoIP connections, unregistered SIM cards and several other issues.

Teletalk officials told the committee that the reports were ‘not correct’ and the newspapers did not publish its rejoinders, which were of the ‘same type’, panel chief Imran Ahmad told bdnews24.com after the meeting.

“The committee asked if the newspapers did not publish the rejoinders and if the reports were not correct, why Teletalk did not take legal action,” Imran said.

“But there was no convincing answer from them. What does it mean? We’ve asked them many questions but there has been no proper answer,” he added.

State Minister for Post and Telecommunications Tarana Halim told Parliament on July 21 Teletalk topped the list of operators with maximum number of SIM cards seized over illegal VoIP connections. 

Around 11,000 Teletalk SIM cards were seized in past one year.

The Parliament Secretariat in a media statement said the telecoms secretary had been asked to submit a report on ways to make a business plan to make Teletalk profitable in the next meeting of the committee.

Panel chief Imran said, “Teletalk is in a bad shape. The main thing is to give it a good shape. It has all sorts of protection. Then why is this not working?” 

“Out of 4 million SIM cards, 2 million have been blocked. Then what are the steps taken to raise the number of connections? Or is there actually any business plan?”

He said the committee discussed a proposal to put Teletalk under a public-private partnership scheme. “But the proposal is not final yet. We will discuss it in details. Then the committee will make the proposal.”

According to him, Teletalk issues would also be discussed in the October meeting of the committee.

The statement said the telecoms ministry informed the committee about measures taken by the Post and Telecommunications Division to overcome the ‘weaknesses in Teletalk management’ in the meeting.

The steps include office automation and easing of process. “Teletalk’s discipline and dynamism is increasing for these steps,” the ministry said, according to the statement.

The statement also said a proposal was submitted in the meeting to make the ‘Bangladesh

Computer Council Project Management Dashboard’, a software being built, available in Upazilas and bring all the projects of this level under the software.

Another proposal to expand the district-level digital labs to Upazila level was also submitted.

State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak, MPs Mouazzam Hossain Ratan, Showkat Hasanur Rahman (Rimon) and Hosne Ara Lutfa Dalia attended the meeting.

The post and telecoms secretary, ICT secretary, BTRC chairman and Teletalk managing director were also present.