The Grameen Bank (GB) has said it has not established any associate organisations and the companies operating in the country under the name 'Grameen' are independent and separate entities.
"Neither GB has set up any such associate organisation(s) nor it has any business relations with the organisations named Grameen,'' the GB has said.
The GB recently made this statement to the Bangladesh Bank (BB), following the central bank's instruction to submit reports on activities of GB's associate organisations annually to the GB board.
The BB had issued the instruction to the GB following a decision of the cabinet meeting.  Â
The bank and financial institutions division (BFID) of the ministry of finance (MoF) has also been informed of the GB statement.
"GB has not formed any associate organisation. Eight non-profit organisations got registered as per the section 28 of the Companies Act 1994 in line with the approval from the GB Board only," the GB statement reads.
The GB statement has also said the bank has neither set any condition nor signed any contract with those organisations, which will compel them to provide information.
"GB believes that it has no legal authority to press those organisations for submitting their progress reports to the GB board for evaluation," the statement has added.
According to the MoF, about 34 companies are in operation in the country under the name Grameen and all of them are associated with the GB.
MoF officials said although the government had earlier taken a decision to issue an SRO (statutory regulatory order) declaring those companies associate organisations of the GB, it did not happen.
When asked, a senior MoF official said: "Since the decision was taken by the cabinet, we have to carry it out. If the cabinet changes its decision, we will also try to implement the same accordingly."
In response to another central bank's instruction, the GB said it had no authority to convert the guarantee provided by GB directors against loans taken by some organisations to shares of the directors.
According to the report sent to the BFID, the GB said the bank had been providing guarantee in favour of those organisations since 1994. The loans, taken against the GB directors' guarantees, were fully repaid in 2007. Since then the GB did not provide any further guarantee, and it was free from any such liabilities.
Earlier, the cabinet took a decision to recover Tk 8.95 million from Packages Corporation, a company owned by Prof Dr Mohammad Yunus' family. The money was transferred to the company from the GB's Social Venture Capital Fund in the form of waiver of a principal amount of a loan.
BB officials said according to the central bank policy, no scheduled bank could waive the principal amount of any loan. They could only give waiver on the interest amount.
The GB said it did not provide any loan to the Packages Corporation from its own fund or from deposits. The loan was given from the Social Venture Capital Fund, a donor-sponsored financial arrangement, which was also approved by the donors.
It also said the 76th board meeting of the GB waived the interest rate on the loan to 5 per cent and gave approval to dissolve the issue. The company in line with the GB board decision repaid Tk 0.7 million to settle the dues by paying the remaining principal amount and the remaining interest.  Â
"Since it is a dissolved issue, doubt is there if any move to recover the waived money would be justified," the GB said in its letter to the BB.
Grameen Bank has no associate organisations, BB told
Abul Kashem | Published: July 11, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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