The state-run Bangladesh Krishi Bank has suspended its Kushtia branch manager after recent investigations found irregularities over Tk 174-crore worth of letters of credit (LC) opened for five companies.

Gulzar Hossain, the branch manager, did not bother to take mandatory approval from the board of directors for the LCs involving such a big amount, said a probe report of Bangladesh Bank.

The BKB Kushtia branch opened the LCs in 2009-11 on behalf of Sureka Enterprise, Alam Enterprise, Brothers Associates, Shahnaj Trading and MR Corporation.

Brothers Associates and Shahnaj Trading are Dhaka-based and the rest are Kushtia focused.

In an immediate response, the BKB has filed a criminal case against Gulzar and an FIR (first information report) against three of the five enterprises with a Kushtia police station. The Daily Star is yet to know the identity of the three companies.

“The irregularity was detected also in our investigation,” Khandoker Ibrahim Khaled, chairman of BKB, told The Daily Star yesterday. “We've already taken action against the manager.”

Import bill advance is a kind of short-term finance offered by a bank to the importer according to his/her demand upon receiving the bills under the LC and import collection items.

The bank is supposed to monitor whether the party is importing the goods, he mentioned.

In this case, the branch paid the money without doing any checks.

The BB inspection found the branch had paid the money to the exporters' bank, but there was no evidence of a delivery of goods. And, the importers were yet to pay the banks, said the report.

Ibrahim Khaled said, “We are trying to recover the money.”

The BKB boss added the exporters' bank in India still had pending bills with the BKB Kushtia branch. “But we've got a court's stay order on payment of the bills.”

Contacted, Ajay Sureka, owner of Sureka Enterprise, said his firm imported goods by opening the LC during February-September 2010 and paid the bank fully.

“I don't know why my firm's name is in the report. I did not get any letter from the bank about its claim in the last two years.”

An accounts official of Alam Enterprise, preferring not to be named, said the company had no dues to be paid to the BKB.

The other three firms could not be reached yesterday.

News: The Daily Star/Bangladesh/09-Sep-12