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BTRC hits a snag in appointing foreign auditors for telcos

Abdullah Mamun
The telecom regulator's plan to bring in an international accountancy firm for a clean audit into the mobile operators' books has hit a legal brick wall after it was pointed out that the act would go against the country's laws.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh, the national professional accountancy
body, drew attention to the fact that as per the Companies Act 1994, only a person qualified under the Bangladesh Chartered Accountants Order 1973 can audit the books of local companies.
However, foreign firms can act as associate firms for the audit, with a local accountancy firm serving the lead role - which is the opposite to what Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC)
planned to do.
Sunil Kanti Bose, chairman of BTRC, said the commission is still working on the issue so that everything is done within the laws.
However, an official of the regulator said the issue has been forwarded to Lex Council, a consulting firm that looks into the commission's legal matters. Meanwhile the regulator has already shortlisted six international firms from the 11 that responded to its two-page request for expressions of interest, posted on the If IRC website earlier in the year.
The firms are: Kingston Smith LLP, SM Saini and Associates, Cianender and Associates, Pricewaterhouse Coopers Pvt Ltd, Nayak and Kishnadwala, and Ernst and Young LLP.
The telecom regulator started the process of appointing an international audit firm after its first attempt to sniff out creative bookkeeping by the mobile companies to hold back revenues from the government, was met with disputes.
In 2011, BTRC appointed local accountancy firms, and the exercise kicked off with the country's top two operators, Grameenphone and Banglalink. MA Fazal & Co and Aziz Halim Khair Chowdhury were the respective auditors. Aziz Halim Khair Chowdhury backed out within a week of appointment by the BTRC; so another firm, Ahmed Zaker and Co, took over, but they, too, were unable to start the proceedings.
Grameenphone's audit, however, was completed, but the operator called into question MA Fazal and Co's report, taking the issue to High Court, where the case is still pending.
Meanwhile, the telecom regulator's process of appointing auditors was challenged by an aggrieved accountancy firm, K Alam and Co, which filed a writ petition with the HC in June. The decision was given in K Alam and Go's favour, but BTRC took the issue to the Appellate Division, where the case is still pending.
"We, therefore, want an international firm to carry out the auditing to prevent anyone from questioning the quality and integrity of the findings,” Bose had earlier toldThe Daily Star.