The BTTB chairman, who headed the trouble-shooting mission, attended only one of the 14 meetings scheduled with different overseas operators, according to the report submitted to the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications. The Daily Star obtained a copy of it.

Officials alleged that the BTTB chairman, who took his wife along, also took one week's additional leave and spent the two weeks with his two sons, who live in the US, skipping crucial business meetings.

The government spent more than Tk 5 lakh on the trip and the BTTB officials are questioning the outcome of such an extravagant trip. The unresolved issues with the overseas operators are also feared to be affecting the government's earnings.

The BTTB receives more phone calls than it sends abroad and overseas operators pay the state telecoms monopoly for receiving the balance phone calls in foreign currency. Minor disputes in fixing the amounts the BTTB receives have been a routine phenomenon prior to settling such payments.

The government sends a BTTB mission to an annual event styled

Global Telecommunication Meeting (GTM) in Washington DC to thrash out these disputes and explore more business. BTTB Chairman Nurul Islam and General Manager (GM), Overseas, Ashraful Alim attended this year's GTM held last month.

Pakistan Telecom Company Ltd (PTCL), Telecom Italia and two American carriers -- Sprint and MCI -- were ready to instantaneously settle their dues in Washington. Accordingly, the BTTB's GM arranged meetings with all of them, but the chairman skipped all these critical meetings, leaving the payments unrealised.

In the internal report, the GM said Telecom Malaysia, Saudi Telecom, Telecom Italia, Etisalat of the United Arab Emirates, Canadian Teleglobe, Japanese KDDI and American AT&T and MCI agreed to provide the BTTB with Digital Circuit Multiplexing Equipment (DCME) free of charge.

The device multiplies the international satellite circuits, boosts overseas calls and increases BTTB's foreign exchange earnings. Some of the foreign operators even agreed to pay the duties and taxes when the DCME equipment arrives in Bangladesh.

But the GM alone could not seal these generous deals in the absence of the chairman, who was also absent in the meetings where Telecom Malaysia, AT&T, Teleglobe and KDDI offered free satellite segments to BTTB.

"The chairman's presence in those meetings would have accelerated BTTB's outstanding revenue collection in foreign currency by this fiscal year," remarked a BTTB official, asking not to be named.

He said it would have also increased BTTB's cross-border calls and boosted the country's foreign exchange earnings. Another BTTB official, also preferring anonymity, said the illegal international call trading would have significantly reduced had the chairman taken full advantage of his attending the Washington meeting.

The GM's report on the Washington trip cites the chairman's only meeting with Saudi Telecom with which the BTTB has no outstanding issues.

The BTTB chairman told The Daily Star, "The GM had told me that he alone could handle all the international operators and that's why I decided not to interfere with those meetings."

The GM, however, dismissed the chairman's claim.

The chairman also admitted he did not submit any report to the telecoms ministry on his return from the official trip. "I have been busy with various work since coming back from Washington and I am again flying to Tunisia to attend a meeting on submarine cable project."

Sources said the chairman's wife also accompanied him to Dubai and Singapore where he attended submarine cable meetings this year.