The government is going to form a new body to run the electoral process of Grameen Bank, the Nobel peace prize winning microcredit institution. Earlier, Bangladesh Bank was given the responsibility to appoint director. But the BB authorities being the regulatory body declined to run the election. “We will bring some change in the existing rules to run the election of nine borrower-directors of GB. The change will be brought when BB expressed inability to conduct the election. The details about the changes will be revealed soon,” Finance Minister AMA Muhith said on Tuesday at his Secretariat office.Replying to queries of newsmen, he said, “Some other banks will be given the responsibility to carry out the task. We will take initiatives within very short span of time to bring change to the guideline.””The central bank refused to run the election saying there will be ‘conflict of interest’… In fact, the BB as a regulatory body cannot do so,” he further said. Official sources said the Banking and Financial Institution Department of Ministry of Finance on April 6 isued a notification empowering the BB to appoint members of GB board by conducting election. As per the rule, the last date of holding the election is October 5.The Finance Ministry last month had asked the BB to conduct the election. In this backdrop, the BB Governor Atiur Rahman met the Finance Minister to clarify the stance of the central bank for not conducting the election. At that time, the BB chief categorically said that they would not conduct election of any of the banks including the GB, the officials said. According to the GB [Election of Directors] Rules 2014, the BB will form a three-member commission to elect nine members of the 12-member board while the rest directors will appointed by the government directly. Meanwhile, the government has been facing dilemma in appointing a new Managing Director [MD] in GB after the removal of Nobel Laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus. On march 2, 2011, the BB removed Dr. Yunus from the post of MD of GB, saying his continuing work as MD violated the law that public servants must retire at the age of 60. Yunus also lost his final appeal in the Supreme Court against his removal from the GB while the court upheld the decision of the BB to remove him from the office.The government in last March also had turned down a proposal for constituting a search committee with Dr Mohammad Yunus at the top to find a new MD.Khandaker Mozammel Haq was made chairman of the GB had also resigned showing physical illness as reason.The resignation is also not accepted till the date as none was reportedly agreed to be the new chairman, according to sources.
