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The newly appointed administrator of Sonali Life Insurance Company Limited (SLICL) has served show-cause notices on its top five executives, including AMD and DMD, for making written complaints against him.
According to sources, the administrator, Brig Gen (retd) SM Ferdous, has also asked the respondents to submit written explanations as to why legal action would not be taken against them.
The administrator, appointed by the Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA) on April 21 to address some complexities in the company, issued the notices on June 25.
The officials have got three days' time for clarification.
On May 29, the five executives -- an additional managing director, two deputy managing directors and two assistant managing directors -- lodged complaints against Mr Ferdous with the finance ministry.
They also made a plea to appoint an observer with the intent to restore the old board on an urgent basis.
The top officials have sought the ministry's intervention to protect 0.8-million customers' deposits of the company.
"An administrator has been appointed to destroy the future of the company and field workers under the IDRA chairman's direct patronage to execute a conspiracy," the officials claimed in the letter.
Despite several attempts over phone, the FE failed to contact IDRA chairman Mohammad Jainul Bari for comment.
He, however, told the reporter concerned on WhatsApp: "I'm out of (the) country. Thanks."
In the letter, the SLICL officials cited that the retired army person was completely incompetent as well as inexperienced in the insurance sector.
"He is involved in a plot for an uncertain future by cutting off the fundamentals of the company and the various benefits of the business and its employees."
According to them, the company has lost its business about 40 per cent and over 50 per cent respectively in May and June because of his appointment.
The lives and livelihood of the talented, hard-working field workers and their families are in trouble because of the new administrator, they claimed.
The officials, therefore, have sought his quick removal to restore business order in the SLICL.
A group of conspirators is trying to take over the company by removing the suspended directors in the name of an investigation, they mentioned.
Had the directors committed any wrongdoing, the officials said, they could have been given a show-cause notice or warning and fined.
The company has more or less 30,000 temporary and permanent employees.
When asked, some senior officials said, "We want the restoration of the old board and appointment of an efficient, neutral administrator from the Financial Institutions Division (FDI).
They said branch and unit managers, including financial associates, have been facing difficulties in the last couple of months due to non-payment of other benefits by the current authorities of the troubled insurance.
They accused the administrator of hiring five people with higher salary after his joining the company and paying bonus to them in the very first month, which is unusual and a violation of existing practices.
As the FE posed a query to Mr Ferdous over phone, he declined to make any comment on the issue.
Under a special circumstance, the board of the company has been suspended as well as an administrator has been appointed as per letter dated 18.04.2024 of IDRA, according to a disclosure by the Dhaka Stock Exchange.