Rules will be changed to elect Grameen Bank board: Muhith

Rules and regulations will be amended to elect the Board of Directors of Grameen Bank after Bangladesh Bank expressed its inability to do that, the finance minister has said.

According to Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, ‘something else in place of Bangladesh Bank’ will be inserted into the part where the rules vest the central bank with the authority to elect the board.

The minister faced questions from journalists on the issue on Tuesday after he emerged from a meeting with outgoing Chinese Ambassador Li Jun at his office.

“We will do something about it. You will know when it will have been done… We are working on it. It will be finalised in a couple of days,” Muhith told the media.

The Bank and Financial Institutions Division of the finance ministry issued the rules and regulations on Apr 6 this year to elect the board for the Nobel prize-winning bank.

The rules set a six-month deadline for electing the directors which will be ending on Oct 5.

But the central bank, being a regulator, has refused to take part in the process to elect directors of Grameen Bank, or any other bank for that matter.

“Bangladesh Bank told me they have conflict of interest and they can’t conduct the Grameen Bank election,” the finance minister admitted.

Asked why this problem was not checked as the policy was being drafted, the minister replied, “Maybe they didn’t see it. Maybe they weren’t consulted. So what?”

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus had been the MD since the inception in 1983, until the government removed him from the position in March 2011 on the ground that he had crossed the age limit to remain in service.

He moved the High Court against the central bank decision but lost the legal battle.

Yunus shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 with Grameen Bank "for their efforts towards poverty alleviation" through microcredit.

Grameen Bank and Yunus faced widespread criticism after a documentary on the Norweigan national TV in 2010 accused Yunus of transferring foreign funds from one account to another without informing the donors.

The government formed an inquiry commission to review the activities of the bank following the allegation. The commission recently submitted its report in which it was recommended that the bank be decentralised.

Last February, the government began formulating a policy for board election after the commission submitted its report.

The Grameen Bank board had 12 members, among whom the chairman and three members were appointed by the government. The other nine were elected from the women entrepreneur shareholders for three years.

In the three years since dismissing Yunus, the government has been unable to appoint an MD for Grameen. Mohammad Shahjahan has been acting as the bank’s acting MD.

Chairman Khnadker Mozammel Haque, too, resigned in October 2013. The government has requested him to hold the office until it can find a replacement.

Asked about this problem, the finance minister said, “Appointing a chairman is my concern and I’ll take care of it.”