Grameen Bank Commission: Where’s final report?

Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday failed to confirm whether the Grameen Bank Commission handed him its final report in full or in part.
“A report has been submitted to me, but I don’t know whether this is the commission’s report or Ajmalul Hossain QC’s part of the report,” the minister told reporters at his secretariat office in the capital.
“We are trying to find out — either way, it will be published on the ministry’s website tomorrow [today].”
His comments came after it emerged that a 44-page report on Grameen Bank and its 48 associated organisations was submitted to the finance ministry on Friday. However, nobody could say when and who submitted the report to the minister.
On Thursday, Hossain, a member of the government-sponsored committee, told The Daily Star that he would submit his part of the report by Sunday, even if the full report was not compiled by then.
The lawyer’s aides in Dhaka yesterday said he flew out of the country on Thursday night.
“I believe the commission has authorised Ajmalul Hossain [to submit the report]. As far as I know this is the commission’s report,” said Muhith.
Asked about the contents of the report, he said: “The report contains mostly legal issues.”
A finance ministry official said the minister yesterday asked officials of the banking division to contact the other two members of the commission to claim ownership of the report.
There was confusion as Commission Chairman Mamun Ur Rashid has been out of the country for the past few weeks, said the official.
Apparently, the commission members had earlier agreed to complete the report separately, with Hossain being assigned to write the part on legal issues and Moslehuddin Ahmed, a chartered accountant, another part on accounting.
Sources said Ahmed had long completed his part and sent it over to the chairman. Finance ministry officials, however, could not contact the former bureaucrat as he is out of the country.
Asked whether the confusion, which occurred due to the chairman being away, has embarrassed the government, Muhith said: “If [Hossain] was authorised to turn in the report on behalf of the commission, it is all right — there is nothing to be embarrassed.”
Mamun Ur Rashid, Moslehuddin Ahmed and Ajmalul Hossain could not be reached for comments. Nobody could say when the chairman would return.
Drafted in May last year to review the Grameen Bank’s governing structure and its relations to the independent associated companies founded by Prof Muhammad Yunus, the commission was due to submit its report on July 20.
Though the report was not complete by then, the commission still had to vacate its premises by that date. There have been claims that the absence of an office space has complicated matters further, as the members had to work on important issues separately.
The commission was originally scheduled to submit the final report in September 2012, but it found it “impossible” to do so in just three months.
Besides, the long absence of a commission member and the resignation of another hampered the activities of the government-sponsored body.
The deadline, subsequently, was extended four times, and it was finally set on July 20. In February this year, the commission submitted an interim report, which created a wave of protests at home and abroad.

Source: The Daily Star