The board of directors of Sonali Bank yesterday claimed they were not guilty of a recent loan scam involving more than Tk 3,606 crore.

The board also passed the responsibility of the scam on to the officers and "their collaborators".

“The board is very much active, competent and judicious,” KM Zaman Romel, a director of the Bank, told journalists after a meeting at the Bank's headquarters in Dhaka.

Though Romel is the chairman of the Bank's audit committee, he denied his failure to carry out the audit work of the Bank properly.

“The then managing director (Humayun Kabir) of the Bank did not inform the board of the financial frauds at the Bank's Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch,” said a statement issued by the Bank.

“If the board was informed on time, the fraud could be averted,” said the statement.

On the suspension of 32 officers identified in the fraud, Pradip Kumar Dutta, managing director of the Bank, said, “It's a process and we've started it.”

“We'll inform the central bank of it tomorrow (today),” said Dutta.

In May 2012, a central bank investigation revealed massive irregularities in sanctioning and disbursing loans worth Tk 3,547, mostly to little-known Hallmark Group, by the Sonali Bank's Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch.

The Bangladesh Bank also instructed the bank to take necessary action.

An audit conducted in June found that the top management of the Bank had remained “mysteriously silent for a year” since February 2011, although the signs of irregularities came to light through various internal inspections.

Some central bank officials said the Sonali Bank management was asked on several occasions to take drastic action against the officials involved in the scam -- but the instructions fell on deaf ears.

BB Governor Atiur Rahman in a letter on Monday requested Finance Minister AMA Muhith to restructure the board of directors of the state-owned bank, saying it failed totally to deal with the Tk 3,547 crore loan scam.

Of the amount, Hallmark Group alone pocketed Tk 2,686.14 crore.

However, a day after the governor's letter, the finance minister questioned the central bank's jurisdiction of dissolving the Sonali Bank's board to be expired next month after a three-year full term.

Meanwhile, the BB in its board meeting yesterday discussed the Sonali Bank's irregularities and the matters of the governor's letter.

“Bangladesh Bank explained the entire issue before the board,” Prof Hannana Begum, a BB director, told the journalists after the meeting.

“We've asked the central bank to devise a permanent mechanism and monitoring system so that the Sonali Bank-type irregularities can be avoided,” she said.

News: Daily Star/Bangladesh/30-Aug-12