BTRC's telecom audit move illegal: HC

The High Court Division yesterday declared illegal the appointment of firms by the telecom regulator to open audits into mobile phone operators.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) did not follow public procurement rules (PPR) of 2008 in appointing the auditors for Grameenphone and Banglalink, the court said in a verdict on a writ petition.
The decision of the review panel of the Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) of the government was a must for BTRC to comply with, BTRC's legal advisor Barrister Khandaker Reza-E-Raquib quoted the HC verdict as saying.
The review panel had questioned BTRC's terms of reference and the methodology of work. It also said BTRC did not include any outside expert in the evaluation committee. The panel asked BTRC to cancel the bidding and go for a fresh one, but the telecom regulator had pressed on with its earlier plan.
BTRC Chairman Zia Ahmed yesterday said they will appeal to the Appellate Division against the HC verdict.
Referring to the court decision, SK Md Morshed, a lawyer for the writ petitioner, said BTRC followed none of the provisions of PPR in appointing the auditors.
BTRC was "high-handed" in the appointment and also later defied the verdict of the review panel, which cancelled the appointment on May 8 and directed the regulator to go for fresh appointment of auditors complying with the government rules, he said.
BTRC also flouted the directives of the telecom ministry, which asked the regulator to abide by the decision of the review panel, said Morshed.
He said the BTRC decision, conveyed to the telecom ministry on May 26, to continue the audit by the appointed auditor firms was without lawful authority.
In March, the regulator appointed two chartered accountant (CA) firms to audit the two mobile operators after short-listing six audit firms.
Later, KM Alam and Co, one of the short-listed firms that did not get the job, challenged the bidding process to the CPTU, saying there was anomaly.
The review panel of the CPTU cancelled the bidding process, saying, “All the process adopted by the BTRC to select the CA firms seemed to be not justified so far.”
The panel also said the advertisement given in the newspapers was not 'self-explanatory', which is a violation of the procurement rules.
“The BTRC had no pre-preparation regarding tender documents, no details of TORs (terms of reference), period of audit, how many mobile companies to be audited and no pragmatic methodology drawn to accomplish the work,” said the verdict of the panel.
The regulator also did not ask for any security deposit from the bidders.
Besides, the tender evaluation committee comprised of 14 officials of the BTRC was not formed complying with the procurement rules, said the panel.
The panel also found the evaluation method in the tendering process faulty.
The BTRC's audit move was aimed to look into the financials of all domestic telecom service providers and check if there was any irregularity, especially in sharing revenue of the operators with the government.