Biman Bangladesh Airlines is now looking for a suitable Bangladeshi candidate for the post of chief financial officer as it has finally decided not to extend the contact of its foreign CFO.
The national flag carrier has invited applications from Bangladeshis with a finance background and maximum age of 55 years.
Biman managing director and chief executive officer Md Mokabbir Hossain told the media that the tenure of the present CFO, Indian origin Vineet Sood, would expire on July 31 and he would be replaced by a new CFO.
Vineet is one of the nine executive directors appointed through an advertisement and he has been serving the Bangladesh flag carrier as its CFO since August 2015, said Biman officials.
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina in March 2014 said that loss-making Biman Bangladesh Airlines needed to make a profit for its survival.
The airline hardly saw profit but it claimed that it earned a profit of Tk 218 crore in the 2018-19 fiscal year despite its outstanding bills with fuel suppliers and the regulator.
Biman human resource department on April 30 published an advertisement seeking CFO with qualification of FCA.
This advertisement, however, triggered debate among the applicants as it only invited applications from chartered accountant for the post while curbing scope for FCMA graduates from the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Bangladesh.
FCMA degree holders claimed that FCA mainly plays role as an auditor while FCMA is more responsible for financial management, planning treasury, accounting and budgeting activities.
Biman should be more pragmatic in their recruitment, they said.
Mokabbir claimed that the criteria were set up by the board and he had nothing to do with that.
Asked what the qualifications were that made Vineet’s appointment possible, he said, “It happened more than four years ago and I was not on the post of MD. You can only ask me about what happened during my tenure.”
Biman officials said Mokabbir, a bureaucrat-turned-operator, was puzzled with the financial management in recent months while borrowing Tk 1,000 crore more from the state-own Sonali Bank limited in May.
The officials said fresh trouble ensued in April when the finance department allowed the festival allowance of Tk 2.21 crore to their staff amid the COVID-19 situation when scheduled flights were closed since March 30.
Biman managing director made the controller of account Manjur Imam as ‘officer on special duty’ from May 1 as he allowed festival allowance to their staff.
“I do not understand how Biman will manage its account in near future,” said Manjur, adding he disbursed the festival allowance following the permission from CFO Vineet.
Biman’s manager payroll, pension and provident Qauzi Mahbubur Rahaman also tendered his resignation after he was also made ‘OSD’ over the disbursal of the festival bonus.
Asked about the incidents of resignation and OSD, Biman MD said there were six thousand employees and the resignation of a manager was not a big deal.