Amend corporate governance guideline
Publicly listed companies have urged the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission to amend some provisions of its recent guideline on corporate governance, which contradict with the rules of primary regulator like Bangladesh Bank.
For example, the BB's guideline allows a bank to have three board of directors' committees—executive, audit and risk management—while the BSEC asked firms to form two committees -- one for audit and one for nomination and remuneration.
“This is a clear contradiction to Bangladesh Bank's rules. It should be amended,” said Azam J Chowdhury, president of Bangladesh Association of Publicly Listed Companies (BAPLC).
The association called on Prof M Khairul Hossain, the BSEC chairman, yesterday at Securities Commission Bhaban in the capital.
According to the corporate governance code, the managing director (MD) and/or chief executive officer (CEO) of a listed company shall not hold the same position in another listed company.
“If a group has many listed companies, why will it have to spend so much money for hiring several MDs?” Chowdhury questioned.
The association appreciated and thanked the BSEC for allowing the publishing of annual reports of listed companies on their respective websites and e-mailing those to shareholders, which were a long-awaited demand of the association.
“This measure will save substantial printing costs,” said Chowdhury.
The BSEC chairman spoke about the philosophy and requirement for promulgating such a code. He took note of the points put forward by the delegation and said clarifications and changes would be made at an opportune time shortly.
Anis A Khan, vice president of the BAPLC, and its executive committee members Gulam Rabbani Chowdhury, Riad Mahmud, Syed Farhad Ahmed and Md Abu Noman Howlader were present at the meeting.
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