Delta Life Insurance accuses IDRA chair of seeking bribe

Delta Life Insurance has accused the chairman of the Insurance Development & Regulatory Authority (IDRA) of seeking Tk 50 lakh in bribes for giving approval to the reappointment of the company's chief executive officer and renewing the actuarial valuation basis.

The insurer complained against IDRA Chairman M Mosharraf Hossain with the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on December 7, 2020. On December 9, it sent another letter to the commission, alleging that he demanded the bribe.

The insurer presented the recordings of phone calls and the audio clip to the commission in support of the allegation.

Yesterday, Hossain did not receive phone calls and reply to mobile phone messages.

After Delta's complaint to the ACC, Hossain filed a general diary with the Motijheel Police Station, stating that one official of the insurance company tried to bribe him, and that all recordings of the mobile conversations had been tampered.

The chairman filed a case in court against six officials of Delta. The court ordered the Police Bureau of Investigation to investigate the case and submit a report on Wednesday.

Hossain, also a former official of the insurer, is not approving the actuarial basis of the company intentionally and is not giving consent to the renewal of the appointment of the CEO, said Chowdhury Qamrul Ahsan, an executive director of Delta Life Insurance, at a press briefing on Sunday.

On February 27 last year, Delta sought the basis from the IDRA for actuarial valuation, which is required to calculate the bonus for policyholders and dividends for shareholders.

On September 23, the insurer sought approval from the regulator to renew the contract of the CEO after securing consent from the board.

"Moreover, the regulator's chairman called a Delta employee upon to his house and demanded Tk 2 crore initially. Then, he asked Tk 1 crore before bringing it down to Tk 50 lakh," Ahsan said.

He also threatened that he would suspend the board and appoint an administrator if the demand is not met, the insurer said in a press release.

Previously, the insurance regulator appointed Fames & R Chartered Accountants as the investigative auditor for Delta after Howlader Yunus & Co carried out a special audit into the company in 2019.

On the basis of the two audits, the regulator served a show-cause notice, saying there were breach of rules and regulations in 22 audit objections.

In some cases, the company's reply on the audit observations was not accepted, the notice said, adding that 25 of the audit observations proved that policy-holders' interest had been impacted.

It asked the insurer to explain why it should not suspend Delta's board for four months and appoint an administrator.