Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
The government will soon appoint new heads of the state-owned banks (SOBs) and financial institutions as posts for their top management remain vacant for many days.
These banks and financial institutions (FIs) are now running without Managing Directors (MDs) and Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), hindering their regular works, including vital policy planning and loan approvals.
Official sources said that appointments of MDs and CEOs would be given to Sonali Bank, Rupali Bank and Agrani Bank while the names of new heads would be announced for Sadharan Bima Corporation and House Building Finance Corporation.
MDs of Sonali Bank and Rupali Bank have gone on retirement while the post of CEO of Agrani Bank remained vacant following his dismissal due to irregularities of loan operation. The MD post of Sonali Bank has been lying vacant from June 16 when contractual appointment of the then MD Pradip Kumar Dutta expired.
Bangladesh Bank fired the Agrani Bank MD Syed Abdul Hamid for misuse of power and loan irregularities before his scheduled retirement date of July 10, and contract of Rupali MD M Farid Uddin expired on July 6, leading vacant to the banks top management posts.
Besides, the top management posts of Sadharan Bima Corporation and House Building Finance Corporation have been lying vacant for the last eight months.
“We have already started the selection process of MDs and CEOs of major public sector banks and FIs by forming separate bodies,” Md Eunusur Rahman, Secretary to the Bank and Financial Institutions Division (BFID), told The New Nation on Tuesday.
He said, the bodies have already prepared a ‘fit list’ of senior officials for making appointments to the vacant posts.
They have already taken interviews for appointments of MDs and CEOs at the state-run banks and FIs from applicants who are currently serving as senior executive posts there.
“We will move quickly on the appointment process. Now we are very close to the announcement. But the final decision on that has to come from the government high-ups,” he said.
Khondoker Mohammad Iqbal, the incumbent MD of BASIC Bank, Shams-ul-Islam, MD of Ansar VDP Bank, Obayed Ullah Al Masud, CEO of Karmashangstan Bank and Ataur Rahman Prodhan, current MD of Probashee Kalyan Bank, are among the officials in the fit list.
The BFID will also promote 13 senior executives of public sector banks and financial institutions as Deputy Managing Directors (DMDs) for three years.
