Question raised over amendment of regulation of MD appointment, extension of contract

The term of the managing director (MD) of the Palli Daridro Bimochon Foundation (PDBF) was set to end in December last year.

Just two months ahead of the term, the PDBF’s board of governors at a meeting amended the existing regulations on the appointment of MD and decided to extend the term by three years.

Thus, the current MD Muhammad Maududur Rashid Safdar continues to be in office, but people concerned raised questions whether due process was followed to extend the term of the MD.

Several former and current officials of the PDBF told Prothom Alo on condition of anonymity that the entire process of that meeting was for extending the term of the MD. A 23-year-old regulation was shown effective, and again a letter on extending the contract was sent to the MD before amending those regulations.

The contract of the current PDBF MD was set to end on 20 December 2023. However, the PDBF’s board of governors declared the existing regulation void at its 94th meeting on 17 October and decided to extend the contract of MD in accordance with the regulations that the foundation’s board approved 23 years ago.

The decision followed sending a letter with an extension of the contract for three years to the MD on 30 October, and a gazette was issued on the amended MD appointment regulations after more than one and a half months on 20 December. Usually, the issuance of regulations by an autonomous body requires a vetting of the law ministry’s Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs Division, and that was not followed for the PDBF’s amended regulations.

Documents and meeting minutes of the PDBF show, the meeting was told that the regulations on the appointment of managing director of PDBF issued on 23 May 2000 have been reinstated by a verdict of the High Court in 2018. The Appellate Division also upheld the High Court verdict on 17 December 2017, thus, the regulations issued in 2020 become void.

The 2000 regulations state the board can extend a contract for any duration upon fulfilling other requirements. At the meeting, the board members argued it is necessary to amend the 2020 regulations to ensure further transparency in light of the court verdict. The meeting decided to introduce the ‘PDBF MD appointment regulations, 2023’ with the inclusion of the amendment of the contract extension.

As per the contract extension, the term of the MD will end on 20 December 2026. Regarding this, former PDBF managing director Aminul Islam told Prothom Alo that no initiative was taken to amend the regulations in the following three years of the court verdicts. The existing regulations have no way to extend the tenure of the MD, that is why decisions on the amendment to the regulation and extension of the MD’s contract were taken hurriedly before the expiry of the contract.

When this correspondent called MD Muhammad Maududur Rashid Safdar for a comment, he reacted angrily before hanging up the phone. He did not reply to queries sent to his email which was available on the agency’s website either.

As per the instruction of the public administration ministry, an autonomous body that requires amendment to their regulations will send a proposal to the cabinet through the public administration ministry for the consideration of the administrative development-related secretary committee. Once the committee gives a nod, then the matter will be subject to the vetting of the law ministry’s Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs Division. After that, the respective administrative ministry or division can issue the amended regulations.

The Rural Development and Co-operatives Division released a gazette on the amended regulations on the appointment of MD of PDBF on 20 December 2023, but no vetting of the law ministry was carried out on this matter. No letter was sent to the public administration ministry either.

The senior secretary of the Rural Development and Co-operatives Division and chairperson of PDBF Mosammat Hamida Begum approved this gazette. This correspondent visited her office on 4 February, but she was not found. Neither did she receive mobile phone calls nor did she reply to the queries through WhatsApp.

A joint secretary of the concerned office at the Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs Division told Prothom Aloa that no relegations relating to the appointment of the PDBF MD came to the law ministry. When this correspondent showed the amended PDBF regulations, the official said there is no opportunity to formulate such regulations without the law ministry’s vetting.

*This report appeared in the print and online editions of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten in English by Hasanul Banna