Half of political parties yet to submit financial reports to EC

Court Correspondent :
Of the registered political parties, about 50 per cent are yet to submit their financial statements of the year to the Election Commission (EC).

Meanwhile, the EC has decided not to disclose the annual income and expenditure accounts of the political parties. However, the commission registered political parties have been submitting their annual financial statements to the EC.

Of the EC and political parties, none disclose their financial reports to the public.

This year, of the political parties 50 percent did not submit their yearly financial statements to the EC within the stipulated period.

However, the political parties will be allowed to give their reports to the EC up to the end of September.

In the mean time, the three major political parties- the Awami League, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jatiya Party (JP) have submitted their yearly financial reports to the commission.

In 2008, the Election Commission introduced submission of financial statements of registered political parties for the period January to December within July 31 of the next year.

The report has to be scrutinized by a registered chartered accounting firm before its submission.

It has been observed that the parties submit their reports to the commission and disclose only amounts of their income and expenditure to the media which are not disclosed either in the website of the parties or the Election Commission.

Additional Secretary of Election Commission, Ashok Kumar Devnath disclosed that at least 20 political parties including Awami League, BNP and JP submitted their financial statements within July 31, while other parties appealed to the commission for extension of time.

Process has been initiated to extend time limit up to September, added Ashok Devnath.