A Bangladeshi probe has accused Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus of turning his pioneering microfinance bank into a "massive conglomerate" against its own rules, the chief investigator said Tuesday.
The government investigation into Grameen Bank found a "large-scale trend in flouting of rules and regulations in the management of the bank", probe committee chief A.K. Monowar Uddin Ahmed told AFP.
The finance minister announced on Monday that the probe had cleared the bank of misusing Norwegian aid and of charging excessive interest on loans.
But Ahmed said the government ordinance that set up the bank -- which shared the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize with Yunus for their work providing small cash loans to the poor -- should be amended to tighten regulation of Grameen.
"It needs a new legal framework" to regulate the bank and its many sister firms, known as social businesses, which include a number of profitable foreign joint ventures, he said.
"Grameen Bank is now the kind of massive conglomerate we see in South Korea or Japan," he said.
The bank has huge influence in Bangladesh, and its sister companies have moved into solar panels, mobile phones and other consumer goods, but this expansion did not adhere to the original Grameen Bank law, the probe said.
Grameen Group has joint ventures with companies like French food giant Danone, Norway's Telenor through Grameen Phone -- Bangladesh's largest mobile company by subscribers -- and Japan's largest clothing retailer Uniqlo.
"The Grameen Bank has violated its own laws, rules and regulations... consistently on the way," the committee's report said, according to a copy obtained by AFP.
The review was launched after a Norwegian documentary claimed $96 million of aid was diverted in 1996 from Grameen Bank to other parts of Grameen group.
"Grameen Bank has become a person-oriented organisation, not a rules or system-based organisation," the report said, calling for an overhaul of the board structure and the restructuring of some sister companies.
"Together, Grameen Bank and its sister organisations have emerged as a big conglomerate, which needs to be redefined and restructured," the report said.
The Grameen Bank dismissed reports of irregularities as "untrue and baseless".
The bank is still awaiting a final decision on a separate government claim that Yunus was illegally reappointed managing director, with the Supreme Court due to review an order for his dismissal early next month.
Yunus was last month fired by a central bank order, which claimed he failed to seek the bank's approval when he was reappointed managing director of Grameen Bank indefinitely in 1999.
The High Court upheld the order in a March 8 ruling, saying the dismissal was legal and that Yunus had also exceeded Grameen Bank's mandatory retirement age of 60.
Backed by international lobbying, Yunus has defied the sacking order by filing a legal appeal and continuing to work at Grameen Bank's Dhaka headquarters.
The Supreme Court has said it would review the dismissal decision on May 2.
Supporters of Yunus, who has also been vilified in the Bangladeshi press, say his legal woes stem from a fallout with Hasina in 2007 over his short-lived attempt to found a political party
Source:
1. http://newagebd.com/
2. http://www.google.com/
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