SEC in for overhaul

Nazmul Ahsan | Published: April 09, 2011 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Nazmul Ahsan
The government will go for a drastic restructuring of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), highly placed sources in the government said Friday. The overhaul will take place as per the recommendations made by a probe committee on the recent share market crash, headed by Bangladesh Krishi Bank (BKB) chairman Khondker Ibrahim Khaled. The probe committee report was submitted to the government on Thursday. The report strongly suggested that the government should go for sweeping changes in the top positions of the commission. The incumbent SEC chairman Ziaul Haque Khondker will be shown the door next week, with a senior member of the commission getting the charge of the securities regulator for an interim period, the sources said. The government is also considering to re-investigate the recent share market manipulation, a top official in the government said Friday. The probe committee on the share market crash may be given further three months' time to re-investigate the irregularities in more details, he said. "We need a detailed investigation into the share market scam as the probe committee did not get enough time to find out the irregularities in greater details and unearth the whole game that was at work during manipulation of the capital market," the official said. The probe committee, formed on January 25, was given three months' time to prepare the report. It, however, completed the report about a month before the deadline. Finance Minister AMA Muhith at a press briefing on Thursday said the names of individuals, who have been mentioned in the report, would be published at this stage because they might not be found really 'involved' in the process of further or final investigations. "The probe committee itself has suggested to us to be more sure about the wrong-doings of the individuals mentioned in the report as having played foul-games in the capital market leading to its 'crash', before proceeding for any action against them," Mr Muhith told the reporters Thursday. The Ministry of Finance will initiate the process from tomorrow (Sunday) for assigning the probe committee the responsibility to re-investigate the share market scam from a broader perspective, a high official said. The government has already started its head-hunting for a suitable person to head the SEC to replace Mr Ziaul Haque, the sources told this correspondent. The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) is in close contact now with the Ministry of Finance (MoF) in selecting the "appropriate" persons for the top positions in SEC, a top official at the ministry said. However, the government is in a fix about finalising the name for the post of the SEC chairman as it could not make any choice until Friday among some already short-listed ones, sources said. "We are yet to find out a suitable person for the post," a top policy-maker of the government told the FE. "People have proposed to us the names for the SEC chairman, considering their own interests. This is frustrating and worrying for us," he added. The policy-maker said they were now searching for a suitable person as the top boss of SEC from among former bureaucrats and bankers.