Without the board of directors’ approval, the management of Agrani Bank Ltd, a state-owned commercial bank, paid Tk 13.8 million as advertisement bills to a private TV channel.

Audit Inspection Report (AIR) of Bangladesh Bank recently found this ‘anomaly’.

The report said Agrani Bank management made a one-year deal with the channel to sponsor its ‘News Hour’ programme paying Tk 1.15 million per month including 15 percent value added tax.

According to AIR, Tk 13.8 million was paid between first of January and 17th of April this year. daily sun managed to obtain a copy of AIR.

The report identified such advertisement payments without board of directors’ approval as ‘financial irregularity’, recommending punitive actions against those involved.

The AIR said a private TV channel that broadcasts hourly news round-the-clock sought Agrani Bank’s sponsorship of the programme on 3rd August 2010. The sponsorship application was placed to the 194th meeting of the bank’s board on 3rd November same year.

But the board could not make any decision regarding it, the report added.

In the mean time, the public relations department of the bank gave a ‘Work Order (Advertisement/1000/2010)’ to the TV channel on 15th November 2010 under the managing director’s approval. In the approval paper, MD wrote that the board chairman had given verbal consent to the issue.

But the BB inspection report said according to the rules, such approval must be in written form.

When contacted Friday, Syed Abdul Hamid, MD of the bank, claimed that the entire process was done on prior written approval of the board chairman.

“Yes, we had written approval from the board chairman. But, the fact might be that our staff failed to show it to the BB inspection team,” he said.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 22th July 2012