To maintain a stock fund, board spent millions on meetings

What does it take to manage  undistributed money of stock investors and hand it over to rightful recipients? You appear to be wrong if the answer is simply sincere effort.

For this task, it would not only require a board of governors but also nearly half a dozen committees and as many as 54 meetings in just one year -- along with spending Tk 2.12 crore on conferences and events.

At least, this is how things were done by a board led by former principal secretary to the prime minister, Md Nojibur Rahman, to manage the Tk 1,545 crore fund.

After retiring from the principal secretary post, Rahman was appointed as the chief custodian of the stock market board to manage the fund, officially named Capital Market Stabilization Fund (CMSF).

As honorarium and event expenses, the former bureaucrat and his colleagues spent Tk 2.12 crore in fiscal year 2022-23 -- which is one-third of the fund's operating cost for that year, according to documents obtained by The Daily Star.

In the previous year, 2021-22, they spent Tk 1.19 crore for honorariums and events while the total operating cost was Tk 2.40 crore.

The stock regulator has taken notice of this issue and launched an inquiry to assess the justification for so many meetings and the subsequent expenditure.

In 2021, the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) established the CMSF to retain undistributed cash and stock dividends, non-refunded public subscription money and unallotted rights shares of listed securities.

The cash and stocks in the fund are meant to be returned based on vetted claims of shareholders or investors at any time.

Until that happens, the funds are meant to be utilised for maintaining stability in the capital market.

This can be achieved by ensuring liquidity through the purchase and sale of listed securities, investment in other securities, loans to market intermediaries, lending and borrowing of listed securities and settlement of investors' claims.

Nojibur Rahman had been the 11-member board's chairman since the fund's inception. His three-year tenure ended last month.

The board was aided by nearly half a dozen committees, including an Operation Management Committee, Audit and Accounts Management Committee, and Risk Management Committee.

In fiscal year 2022-23, the board and committees held at least 54 meetings. The spending breakdown is Tk 1.47 crore for honorarium and Tk 65 lakh for events, according to financial reports obtained by The Daily Star.

In the preceding year, meaning fiscal year 2021-22, the total operating cost of the fund stood at Tk 2.40 crore, of which Tk 1.19 crore was in the form of honorariums and event expenses.

This newspaper is yet to secure minutes of the meetings to know exactly what they were about.

However, according to the financial report, there was roughly Tk 1,545 crore in the fund as of last June.

Since the fund's inception, Tk 265 crore has been returned to over 2,700 investors.

'A QUESTION OF ETHICS AND LOGIC'

From the fund, ICB AMCL CMSF Golden Jubilee Mutual Fund was launched with Tk 50 crore in sponsorship.

Another Tk 225 crore from the fund was kept as fixed deposits with the Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB).

Also, loans of Tk 5 crore were provided to some market intermediaries from the fund.

Another Tk 348 crore has been kept with a bank and the rest remains in the fund's BO account as stock dividends.

"A major portion of the fund has been kept with other entities that are taking all the investment decisions," said Md Moniruzzaman, managing director and CEO of Prime Bank Securities.

"So, the CMSF custodian has very little to do, let alone hold so many meetings," he added.

Moniruzzaman recently told this newspaper that all expenses should have proper justification as it is a question of ethics and logic.

Usually, research and staff salaries account for the lion's share of the operating cost of any fund, according to Shahidul Islam, CEO of VIPB Asset Management Company.

"As a major portion of the CMSF rests with other entities, its board does not have to conduct any research to decide on investment options. Its operating costs should be very low," he said.

"In our company, we held four meetings last year and the honorarium for directors was around Tk 2 lakh, which is 1 percent of the total operating costs," Islam said. "I don't see any logic to spend such a high amount of money behind honorariums."

WASTAGE OF MONEY?

The Daily Star could not reach Md Nojibur Rahman for comment despite repeated phone calls and a text message recently.

However, this newspaper was able to reach the CMSF's Chief of Operation Md Monowar Hossain.

He said the custodian had to hold many meetings as the fund was at a primary stage and now it has attained a strong position.

"The CMSF has provided a huge number of undistributed dividends to the right investors," he said. "We are very much cautious so that the investors' fund does not face any erosion."

Of the expenses, none was met from the principal amount. All the costs were borne from the interest income of the fund, he added.

The Daily Star also spoke with two members of the CMSF board.

They, on condition of anonymity, said almost all relevant decisions were taken by the CMSF chairman in consultation with the BSEC's top officials.

They believe that these types of meeting expenses and honorariums were a wastage of funds and they had advised to reduce the number of committees and meetings.

BSEC Spokesperson Farhana Faruqui said the stock market regulator noticed the issue a couple of times and launched an inquiry.

Based on the findings of the inquiry, the BSEC is going to take steps soon and the matter will be sent to the enforcement department, she added.