MRA to seek new restructured organogram with more posts

Ismail Hossain | Published: July 18, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

The microcredit regulator is going to seek restructured and expanded new organogram of 265 positions instead of previously proposed organogram of 207 posts to meet the demand of the sector which has expanded substantially over the years.
The new organogram has been approved at the 37th meeting of Microcredit Regulatory Authority (MRA) board of directors.
In the new organogram, MRA created some new posts relating to Public Relations, Information Technology, Accounts, Legal and protocol etc.
MRA was established in 2006 to ensure transparency and accountability of the Micro Finance institutions (MFIs) in the country. Currently, 745 MFIs are registered with the MRA. The number of total clients of this sector is 35 million.
"The MFIs under MRA have Tk 300 million in outstanding loans. MRA is now in the process of granting licences to 350-400 more MFIs," MRA Director Sazzad Hossain told The Financial Express Thursday adding that the expanded sector now needs more people to regulate and watch its activities.
Â The then government in July 2006 enacted the Microcredit Regulatory Authority Act, 2006 (Act No. 32 of 2006) to bring the MFIs under a regulatory framework, which became effective from August 27, 2006.
Primarily, the newly-established regulator did not have enough operational funds from the government in 2007. The Department for International Development (DFID) helped it grow and to be independent.
Under this programme, the DFID provided Tk 370 million to support the MRA in 2007. The project was supposed to end in June this year. But it has extended the project on request of MRA for one more year which will end in June 2015.
Currently, the MRA has 34 officials under this project, most of them are experts.
The MRA Director expressed the hope that the new organogram will be approved before the completion of DFID project next year.
The DFID support was instrumental for providing the MRA with core operational funding in its early years before government resources became available. It also provided technical expertise about regulation, economic analysis and IT. Besides, the fund was used for getting a permanent office space with co-funding from the government.
According to the proposed organogram, Executive Director and Director positions will be filled up by promotion, if qualified candidate is not found then the position will be filled through deputation.
Â In case of Assistant Director, Senior Assistant Director and Deputy Director positions will be filled up by deputation and promotion, if not found through promotion and deputation, the positions will be filled up through direct appointment.