BCB forms committee to probe past deals
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has formed a five-member committee to review all commercial contracts, major purchases and tenders and expenses on development projects undertaken from January 2000 to July 29, 2007.
The decision was taken at the third executive committee meeting of the ad-hoc committee on Thursday in the wake of whisperings on different financial deals since the Bangladesh cricket got product value.
Abdul Momen, chairman of finance committee, heads the committee with Monowar Anis Khan, chairperson of audit committee, as vice-chairman and lawyer Ashraful Islam, banker Salim RF Hossain and RM Hasan as members.
The committee has been given an initial time frame of three months within which it would conduct the review and report to the board.
The period for the review would give the committee a chance to examine the most important TV deals that had been signed during separate tenures of the board.
The BCB is now the most affluent sport body in the country and there has been doubt over transparency in financial activities of the board. Like the other sectors, the Caretaker Government made the change in the board in a move to bring accountability and transparency.
It was learnt that this proposal was first voiced by a board member in the second meeting, where he demanded review for only the activities of the last board, but one of his colleagues raised questions about the duration.
There were also demands of scrutinising controversies over the MRF deal in 1988 and the sponsorship for the 1999 World Cup team.
"Yes, we have been given a parameter because we have to do the work within a timeframe. The most important thing is that you have to start work from a certain period of time. Otherwise it would be a never-ending job. What you must consider is whether this timeframe would allow us to review all the major issues or not," explained Abdul Momen while talking with the Daily Star over telephone.
"But after that we will definitely go back if needed," he added.
Momen, however, said that his committee would do their best to clear everything in this regard.
"It's a huge responsibility for us and I can assure everybody that all will get fair treatment. We have yet to set our strategy but what's encouraging for my committee is that we can take further help to do the job properly," he informed.
The Ali Asghar-led committee members, both advisory and elected, repeated complained about financial irregularities during its previous committee, especially the TV deal with the ESPNStar Sport. On the other hand, there was no exception about the last TV deal made with Nimbus Sport under their very committee.
So, everybody will look forward to see the outcome of the committee formed by the ad-hoc committee led by Chief of General Staff Maj Gen Sina Ibn Jamali.
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