Former Grameen Bank Managing Director Muhammad Yunus has blasted the government for amending laws governing the micro-finance institution.
The Nobel laureate said in a press release that the amendments to the law would fundamentally alter the bank’s character.
“With these amendments, the government has opened the door for its ultimate destruction,” he observed in a strongly-worded statement released on Wednesday.
Parliament on Tuesday passed the Grameen Bank Bill-2013 despite the main opposition party BNP’s strident objections.
Under the new law, the Grameen Bank Managing Director, chosen from a panel of up to five candidates with Bangladesh Bank approval, will have three-year term.
The bank’s Board of Directors will now have 12 members—three government nominees and nine chosen by the stakeholders.
The MD will head the Board, but without voting rights.
Yanus claims the changes will enable the government to gain 100 percent control of the institution, hitherto owned and managed by poor women.
The eminent economist pointed to the bank’s legal structure, saying it did not allow government meddling in any form except for regulatory oversight.
“I feel extremely sorry that the nation has to go through the unnecessary traumatic experience of seeing a great global iconic institution, created by this nation, be brutally harmed by a group of irresponsible and thoughtless people,” he went on to add.
He said that the immediate task before the country was to “repair the enormous damage done to the Grameen Bank…before it is too late.”
He hoped, the statement said, that the nation, all women, especially the women of Grameen Bank, the members of their family, and the bank staff would rise to prevent the damage.
Source: Bd news24
