GB without a board

THE Grameen Bank (GB) is in big trouble in its birthplace though almost all developing and developed countries have replicated the model as a tool to alleviate poverty and running it excellently. The New Nation reported on Tuesday that the Nobel Peace winning institution is now without a board of directors for 28 months. The government ousted the founder of the microfinance bank Dr Muhammad Yunus from the board in 2011. Now the government neither controls the bank’s board completely nor let its functional freedom to revive to run business operation using its unique charter. The bank is now facing difficulties to run day-to-day affairs due to absence of an elected board of directors as mismanagement is gripping it. The bank’s operating profit for 2016 plummeted that it saw never before. Finance Minister AMA Muhith had promised to rejuvenate GB in last February but this is nowhere visible around it.

The GB is facing serious crisis in absence of a board. We want to say that no organization least to speak about the GB with a global branding can function and survive long without the board. Media reports said its business is already showing nosedive. We believe any chaos and destabilization in GB will only destroy the organization when Dr Mohammad Yunus is no more at the helm of the organization. It will in no way add to the image of the government. We call upon the government to show efficiency to run the bank and as reality suggests it must allow it to constitute its board as its charter allows for ending uncertainty and chaos at the bank. The world will not look positively at the government policy when it comes to harm the bank.

The incumbent GB Chairman last month has rightly sought government’s intervention to overcome the situation. In a letter to the Finance Minister he has called for immediate steps to amend and add several rules and sub-rules for reconstitution of GB’s board. The 12-member GB board has nine borrower-directors, who are elected every three years, and three government-nominated directors, one of whom serves as chairman. The post of nine elected directors are now vacant since their three-year tenure expired on February 7, 2015. But as the new board is yet to be elected, they remain in their post, although ineffective to play any role. Meanwhile, the government is not ready to allow borrowers to elect their representatives the way they like on the board. But since it can’t also ignore the bank’s charter that treats borrowers as of owners of the bank, the crisis continues.
We must say absence of a full board is rendering GB ineffective to suffer from leadership crisis. The chairman as representative of the government has no control over the situation. We suggest GB must be saved and allowed to run the organization using its unique way of management.