BTRC plans to conduct audits of all its licensees

The telecom regulator has planned to conduct audits of all its licensees including NTTNs, IGWs and ISPs to ensure transparency and increase revenue for the government.

Bangladesh Telecommunication and Regulatory Commission (BTRC) took the decision at its recent meeting, aiming to examine financial, technical and regulatory compliance of the operators.

However, the process will take time as the regulator will conduct the audits gradually, said an official at the BTRC.

Earlier in the last year, the BTRC decided to conduct financial audits on three leading mobile network operators (MNOs) - Grameenphone (GP), Robi Axiata and Banglalink - although the claims came out of the previous audits of the GP and Robi are yet to be settled.

The new audits were supposed to be conducted after the end of the previous audit periods - until 2014 for GP and Robi. An audit of the third largest MNO Banglalink is yet to be completed. The audit period expired in 2019.

Post and Telecommunication Minister Mustafa Jabbar told the FE earlier that the audits of the MNOs would be performed soon as a regular responsibility of the regulator.

About the previous audit claims, he said it was under the court's jurisdiction and the government had nothing to do with it.

The BTRC conducted separate audits of the two operators' books from their inception until December 2014 and claimed Tk 125.80 billion from GP and Tk 8.67 billion from Robi. Both the operators went to the High Court, challenging the claims.

The regulator, however, imposed a restriction on GP and Robi to make new investments from July 2019, thwarting their quality of service.

Later, the court ordered GP to pay Tk 20 billion and Robi Tk 1.38 billion to the government exchequer for the time being. The matter is yet to be resolved as all the parties are in discussion on the issue for out of the court settlement.

The BTRC had GP audited in 2011 by a firm that claimed that the telecom company owed Tk 30.34 billion to the government. The GP later took the matter to the court claiming the assessor's lack of capability, and won the dispute, as the audit was declared illegal.

An attempt to inspect Banglalink at the same time failed, as the appointed auditor, Ahmed Zaker & Co, could not complete the job.

At last, the BTRC hired a firm last year to run the audit on the operator.

For the job, the telecom regulator signed an agreement worth Tk 877 million with Masih Muhith Haque & Co, a leading chartered accountancy firm.

However, BTRC has yet not revealed the final claim from Banglalink.

There are two Nationwide Telecommunication Transmission Network (NTTN) operators - Fiber@home and Summit Communications - will be audited, one new NTTN is yet to complete roll-out obligation.

BTRC sources said eight International Terrestrial Cable (ITC) operators, 34 International Gateway (IGW) operators, and 124 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will be gradually audited.

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