Govt to bear costs of audit into mobile operators

The government will bear the costs of audits into mobile phone operators, the telecom ministry said yesterday.

Initially Grameen-phone and Robi will be audited and the costs will be Tk 8.79 crore and Tk 7.82 crore respectively.

Tarana Halim, state minister for telecom, gave a go-ahead to the audit process. Instructions were also given to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission.

"Now the regulator can audit the operators' accounts and technical processes anytime," an official of the telecom division said, asking not to be named.

The ministry in a letter to the BTRC also said the regulator will run the technical audit by its own officials and experts.

The BTRC has selected Toha Khan Zaman & Co Chartered Accountants for conducting the audit into Grameenphone and Masih Muhith Haque & Co Chartered Accountants for Robi and sent the proposal to the government for approval.

The regulator also informed the government that it allocated Tk 40.88 crore for audits into different mobile operators in the current fiscal year.

Once the audits into Grameenphone and Robi are done, the regulator will initiate similar initiatives for other operators.

The BTRC had Grameenphone audited in 2011 by a firm that claimed the telecom company owed Tk 3,034 crore to the government. Grameenphone later took the matter to court and won, as the audit was declared illegal. 

An attempt to inspect Banglalink at the same time failed as the appointed auditor, Ahmed Zaker & Co, could not finish the job.

After the twin fiascos, the BTRC decided to appoint new audit firms.