Grameen bank in new crisis 

There’s no good news for the crisis-ridden Grameen Bank. Fresh problems mount on the old ones in the Nobel Peace Prize winning bank. And it is the government itself that’s creating the crises.

The bank hasn’t had a board in the last 10 months.

It has no managing director for the past four years, not even any board of directors to recruit the MD.

The government, for the last 10 months, has been looking for a retired district judge who would agree to become chairman of the election commission to elect the Grameen Bank MD.

When asked about the election of Grameen Bank MD and all the other crises, finance minister AMA Muhith on Monday told Prothom Alo, “Is that so? I know nothing about this.”

Grameen Bank will face another crisis in October as the acting managing director SM Mohiuddin will retire in the last week of October.

Another acting MD has to be recruited before SM Mohiuddin’s retirement but the decision has to be taken by a board of directors.

Dr Muhammad Yunus, who founded the bank and won the Nobel Prize for Bangladesh, was relieved of his duties at Grameen Bank on 11 May, 2011.

Since then, the acting managing director has been running the bank.

Grameen Bank chairman Mozammel Haque did not to want to comment on the issue. However, acting MD SM Mohiuddin told Prothom Alo, “The meeting of board of directors was called but later it was cancelled in the face of finance ministry’s objection.”

The finance ministry sent a notice to the government-appointed chairman of Grameen Bank, saying the posts of the nine elected directors of the micro lender have become vacant since their three-year tenure expired this year.

The notice said the chairman along with two other directors nominated by the government will now be sufficient to hold meetings of the board of the bank.

Challenging the ministry's decision, Tahsina Khatun submitted a writ petition in April stating that the posts of the nine elected directors would be vacant after the election commission announces the election schedule to select their replacements.

Tahsina Khatun told Prothom Alo, “As the new directors are yet to be elected, we still hold the posts of the nine directors.”

SM Mohiuddin said, “Grameen Bank used to hold elections on time. As per tradition, the directors used to hold the posts until the new ones were elected.”

According to Grameen Bank sources, the 12-member Grameen Bank board is comprised of nine borrower-directors, who are elected every three years, and three government-nominated directors, one of whom serves as chairman.

The nine women directors of the bank still get bank reports and all other documents every month like before.

The finance ministry issued rules and regulations to conduct election in the Grameen Bank in April 2013 but the bank is yet to find an election commissioner to conduct the election under the new rules. The deadline of conducting the election ended in October, 2014.

The micro lender issued a circular on 3 November, 2014 amending the Grameent Bank Act.

To conduct election of the bank, chief election commissioner would be a retired district judge. According to the bank and financial institutions division (BFID), the government could not form the commission till Sunday as no retired district judge was ready to become the chief election commissioner.

BFID secretary M Aslam Alam, however, said, “We’ll appoint the judge. We are trying to do so.”

Ajmalul Hossain QC, member of the commission told Prothom Alo, “We recommended in a Grameen Bank commission report to hold the election through the existing commission.”