No progress in Robi, Banglalink audits

The telecom regulator is yet to start the audit process for Banglalink and Robi, in contrast to its tough attitude on the same issue for market leader Grameenphone.

The decision to look into Robi's books and network usage was taken last year, at the same time as Grameenphone's.

Not only has Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission signed an agreement with Toha Khan Zaman & Co, a chartered accounting firm, to delve into Grameenphone's books, it also dispatched a warning letter to the telecom company on Wednesday asking it to fully cooperate with the auditors.

But it is yet to ink the agreement with Masih Muhith Haque & Co, the selected auditor for Robi.

Auditing is a very normal process and the regulator needs to run it at regular intervals without any discrimination, said State Minister for Telecom Tarana Halim, while terming the situation an unusual one. 

“One operator will face audits while the others will not, this cannot be,” she told reporters at her secretariat office in Dhaka yesterday.  

Masih Muhith Haque & Co, a chartered accounting firm, was selected through a tender in October, but its appointment was delayed when its Indian partner, TR Chadha & Co, refused to come to Bangladesh.

The company has filed a request with the government to change its foreign partner. “The government recently told us to evaluate the new foreign partner status,” a senior official of BTRC said yesterday.

“If the new company qualifies, we can start the audit soon. Otherwise we have to re-tender the job,” he added.

The regulator has not however floated the tender for Banglalink's inspection this time, and its last attempt to review the company in 2011 fell through, when the appointed auditor resigned from the task after some time. The BTRC's finance division has refused to float the tender for Banglalink's audit and put the responsibility on the commission's engineering and operation wing instead.

“We are working to start all the auditing processes without further delay. But it is not going as quickly as we had hoped for,” said BTRC Chairman Shahjahan Mahmood.

The tender seeking an inspector for Banglalink will be published soon, he said, adding that he had directed officials to speed up work on Robi's audit.

The government has allocated Tk 40.88 crore for audits into the mobile operators in the current fiscal year's budget.