Almost half of the registered political parties, including the ruling Awami League, have failed to submit audit reports on their financial transactions in the last calendar year to the Election Commission.Twenty out of the 38 registered political parties, including main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami, submitted their audit reports before last Sunday, the last day for doing so.
Most of the parties out of the 18 who did not submit audit reports sought more time to do so. The parties were given seven months' time from January to comply with the legal provisionfor submitting reports on financial transactions.
Referring to the defaulting parties, chief election commissioner ATM Shamsul Huda on Sunday said that the EC would not take a hard line in this regard and hoped that in the future the parties would submit their reports in time.'The commission at its meeting will decide what to do with those who failed to submit their reports, but will not take a hard line. The country's political culture will not be changed suddenly. This is the first time that the parties are submitting audit reports. In the future they will be more aware and submit the reports on time,' the CEC told the reporters.
The parties which have submitted the reports are BNP, Jamaat, Jatiya Party, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal-JSD, Communist Party of Bangladesh, Bangladesh National Awami Party, Bikalpadhara Bangladesh, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal-Jasad, Zaker Party, Bangladesh Tarikat Federation, Bangladesh Khelataf Andolon, Progotishil Ganotantrik Dal, Bangladesh National Awami League Party (Bangladesh NAP), Bangladesh Jatiya Party, Bangladesh Kalyan Party, Islami Oikya Jote, Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish, Islami Andolon Bangladesh, Bangladesh Islamic Front and Khelafat Majlish.
A delegation of the BNP led by Nazrul Islam Khan, a member of the party's standing committee, submitted the party's audit report to the EC secretariat. He declined to disclose the details of the party's financial transactions. 'Since no decision was made to make it public, we are not giving you (reporters) any details. We will make it public when the party decides to do so,' Nazrul added.
He, however, said that the party collected Tk 5 from several lakh party activists. But there was no major expenditure despite the arrangement of some rallies and processions, he added.On Sunday, which was the deadline, a two-member delegation of the Awami League, led by deputy office secretary Mrinak Kanti Das, handed over a letter to the EC seeking one month's time for submitting the report. Mrinak said that they had informed the EC that the task of auditing the financial transactions was being carried out and sought time till September 1 to submit the report.
Jamaat's legal affairs secretary, Jasimuddin Sarkar, submitted the party's audit report and said that party's main source of income is the regular contributions of the party's leaders, activists and supporters. Besides, some money comes from denotations by individuals, not institutions, on different occasions, he added.
According to Section 9 (b) of the Political Party Registration Rules, every registered political party should get its financial transactions in the immediate past calendar year audited by a registered chartered accounting firm, and submit the report to the EC by July 31.
This time the political parties got an extra day (Sunday) to turn in reports since July 31 was a public holiday.Registration of a political party may be cancelled in line with the Representation of the People Order for failing to provide the EC with reports for consecutive years.Election commissioner Sohul Hussain on Sunday expressed the hope that political parties would abandon the culture of not submitting audit reports. 'According to the rules, registration of the political parties will be cancelled for not submitting the reports of financial transactions. But our objective is not to depoliticise the society — rather we want to help the political parties,' he said.
The EC on July 26 wrote to the secretaries of the registered political parties to remind them of the deadline.The political parties got themselves registered with the EC in October 2008 before the ninth parliamentary elections. According to the Political Parties Registration Rules 2008, they were supposed to audit three months' financial transactions in 2008 and submit audit reports to the EC by 31 July, 2009.The EC, however, exempted all political parties from submitting audit reports on financial transactions in that period of time.
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