Finance and Planning Minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury said, “The current government wants to build an economic system with full transparency and accountability. Our economic future depends on how institutions such as the FRC, ICAB, and ICMAB function. No regulatory body can visit every day and detect irregularities. Therefore, accountants themselves and their respective organisations must first take on the role of self-regulation.”
The finance minister said, “The country’s institutions had become dysfunctional. Everyone knows the reasons behind this. To move from where we are now to where we want to go, all institutions must be made functional. The FRC was established in 2015. Now it is 2026. I do not know what the FRC has done all these years. But the type of financial irregularities that occurred over the years and the huge sums of money that left the banking system were in many cases made possible through false financial statements. Again, many companies got listed on the stock market using false information.”
Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury highlighted the need for proper accounting systems to attract investment.
He said, “Every day some kind of fund manager contacts us—some from Hong Kong, some from London, even from JPMorgan. But as a nation, we have become such that it feels like everything must be accomplished overnight.”
Prime Minister’s Economic and Planning Adviser Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir said, “In the past, audit firms themselves acted as their own judges. Accounting practices often remained outside the law, and that is why today’s conference is extremely important. Past negligence has pushed the entire economy toward a kind of disaster. The chaotic condition we now see in the banking sector is something we inherited.”
Rashed Al Mahmud said ordinary investors had been deceived. Thousands of people invested in the capital market after seeing false financial reports and lost money. Share prices collapsed, and investors suffered indescribable hardship. Later it became clear that the real condition of those companies was entirely different.
The economic and planning adviser further said, “We know how the banking and financial sectors were weakened. Or how banks issued massive loans based on financial reports. Later those borrowers became defaulters, and banks fell into crisis. Honest entrepreneurs suffer the most from these situations. Dishonest competitors create disorder in the investment sector by showing inflated profits. Foreign investors do not want to come when they see such conditions. If I give someone money, I would want to know the state of their business. Financial reports provide that information, so the audit system must be overhauled to attract investment.”
