IDRA chair resigns amid controversy
M Mosharraf Hossain, whose tenure as the chairman of the Insurance Development & Regulatory Authority (IDRA) was marked by controversies, has stepped down, more than a year before his contract comes to end.
Hossain resigned on June 14 and it was accepted, said the Financial Institutions Division of the finance ministry in a notice yesterday.
No reason was given from the division for the resignation. Hossain could not be reached for comments.
He quit citing "personal reasons", said an official of the finance ministry, seeking anonymity.
Also yesterday, the government appointed Mohammad Jainul Bari, a former planning and social welfare secretary, as the new chief of the insurance regulator on a contractual basis for a three-year term.
Until he joins, IDRA Member Moinul Islam has been directed to lead the regulator as its acting chairman.
In September 2020, the government made Hossain the chairman of the IDRA for a three-year term. And controversy hit him from the very beginning.
In December 2020, Delta Life Insurance, where Hossain worked previously, accused him 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 also complained against him to the Anti-Corruption Commission on December 7. On December 9, it sent another letter to the commission, alleging that he demanded the kickback.
Delta presented the recordings of phone calls and the audio clip to the commission in support of the allegation.
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.
In November last year, the High Court asked four government agencies -- the finance ministry, the ACC, the National Board of Revenue, and the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit -- to explain why they failed to investigate the corruption allegations against Hossain, following a writ petition.
The allegations against him included owning two companies anonymously, questionable sources of funds for the firms, investing in the stock market, taking bribes, laundering money and abusing power, according to the writ petition.
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