Bangladesh Bank dumps Best Holdings auditor, 35 others from list of eligible firms

Bangladesh Bank has purged 36 audit firms from the list of those eligible to audit listed and non-listed banks and financial institutions.

Chief Economics Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 21 Dec 2020, 04:13 PM
Updated : 21 Dec 2020, 04:27 PM

The newly ineligible audit firms include Artisan Chartered Accountants and Mahfel Huq & Co, who audited and re-evaluated Best Holdings Limited, a company at the centre of a controversial direct listing fiasco.

The central bank has published the updated list on its website, naming 41 auditors that are eligible to work for the banks and financial institutions, said Md Serajul Islam, executive director and spokesperson for the Bangladesh Bank.

In 2017, Bangladesh Bank published a list of 75 eligible audit firms from a total of 173 registered by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh or ICAB.

Those dropped from the updated list had faced allegations of several types of irregularities.

The central bank banned Syful Shamsul Alam & Co and Aziz Halim Khair Choudhury for issuing no-objection certificates for cash incentives against fake exports bills.

Two auditors, Ahsan Manzur & Co and Chowdhury Bhattacharjee & Co, have been added to the list anew.

A Qasem & Co, A Wahab & Co, ACNABIN, Ahsan Kamal Sadeq & Co, Ahsan Manzur & Co, Anil Salam Idris & Co, Atik Khaled Chowdhury, Basu Banerjee Nath & Co, Chowdhury Bhattacharjee & Co, Das Chowdhury Dutta & Co, G Kibria & Co, Haque Shah Alam Mansur & Co, Hoda Vasi Chowdhury & Co, Hoque Bhattacharjee Das & Co, Howladar Yunus & Co, Hussain Farhad & Co, Islam Aftab Kamrul & Co, Islam Quazi Shafique & Co, KM Hasan & Co, Kazi Zahir Khan & Co, Khan Wahab Shafique Rahman & Co, MA Fazal & Co, MI Chowdhury & Co, MJ Abedin & Co, MM Rahman & Co, MZ Islam & Co, MABS & J Partners, Mak & Co, Masih Muhith Haque & Co were listed as eligible.

SF Ahmed & Co, Shafiq Basak & Co, Ahmad & Akhtar, Ahmed Mashuque & Co, Ata Khan & Co, Pinaki & Company, Ahmed Zaker & Co, Malek Siddiqui Wali. Shiraz Khan Basak & Co, A Matin & Co, KM Alam & Co., Artisan, A Huq & Co, Fames & R, Huda Hossain & Co., Rahman Anis & Co, AB Saha & Co, Islam Jahid & Co, and Mizan Islam & Co are among the firms dropped from the list.