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Friday, August 22, 2014, Bhadra 7, 1421, Shawal 25, 1435 Hijr


Inefficient officials to face music: BB governor
Faruk Ahmed
Publish Date : 2014-08-22,  Publish Time : 00:00,  View Count : 132
Bangladesh Bank  Governor Dr. Atiur Rahman has asked  his officials to increase their efficiency that has deteriorated in recent times. Otherwise, they will face music.   
"Stern actions would be taken against the officials for any negligence in duties and if they found inefficient", he said.
The central bank governor expressed his tough stance in a meeting with the senior BB officials held at his chamber on Wednesday and immediately asked one general manager to take reserve leave, a central bank official told The Daily Observer.
Golam Mostafa, General Manager, Department of Banking Inspection was asked immediately to go on leave as he was found inefficient in his duties, AFM Asaduzzaman, General Manager of Bangladesh working in Governor Secretariat said.
" But the report published in some press and media that he was suspended is completely false", he said.      
The central bank governor recently has taken some strict measures to gear up the functional activities and increase efficiency in operational works of his officials that has come under the of thumps of critics following a number of financial scams in the banking sector.
" It is a routine work of the central bank but a message to the BB officials that the authority will not tolerate any negligence and will only encourage efficiency", Asaduzzaman said.
During the meeting, Dr, Rahman directly discussed different issues and talked to each general managers about their performance.
" The growth of the banking sector, soundness and efficiency of financial markets and the future growth of the economy largely depend on your performance. But in some cases, you have showed inefficiency and negligence", the governor said.
The efficiency of the central bank official has come under the focus in recent days as a number of big loan scams like Hall Mark and Bismillah Group have dwindled a huge amount of money from banking system.
The recent scams have affected the banking operation severely. In addition, the new system of loan provisioning, announced by the central bank, has also become a new challenge for banking operations, a top central bank official said. 
The Bangladesh Bank is taking measures to prevent the scams but incidents are growing faster than actions. In order to prevent the scam, experts say Bangladesh Bank must be given full autonomy for monitoring the activities of state-owned banks as is done in case of private commercial banks. Meanwhile, the overall efficiency ratings of the country's banking sector declined slightly last year due mainly to higher volumes of non-performing loans the banks were burdened with, officials said on the basis of latest evaluation.
It was found out that the efficiency ratio of all banks stood at 77.81 per cent that means the banks spend around 78 paisa to earn Tk 1.0 during the year 2013. The ratio figure was nearly 74 paisa a year ago.
Bangladesh Bank has put into place rules and procedures to improve off-site and on-site supervision of the commercial banks and non-bank financial institutions. But due to negligence and inefficiency of a section of central bank officials, the number of anomalies shows upward trends in recent days.
 The reforms that have taken place over the past two decades helped the central bank to evolve to a stronger position compared to the past. " but we need to improve our internal strength to increase monitoring in banking sector to check any scams", the governor told the general managers of Bangladesh Bank.
Deputy governors and executive directors of the bank were also present during the meeting, sources said.





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