Despite some dramatic incidents, the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS), the national trade body of the country’s information technology sector, is being held on Saturday as scheduled. This matter has been confirmed in a letter issued by the Ministry of Commerce on Friday night. Eventually, this 25th general meeting of BASIS is going to be a historic dateline in the history of IT sector of the country.
As mentioned in the letter signed by Abul Kalam Azad, Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, by order due to unavoidable reasons, the effectivity of the letter issued for postponing the AGM scheduled on March 16 of BASIS has been suspended.
Earlier on Friday, in the letter signed by Abul Kalam Azad, the Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce (TO-2 Branch) wrote, on March 10- following the application lodged by Faikuzzaman, the owner of Dakatiya, the AGM of BASIS scheduled on Saturday, March 16 has been postponed. At the same time, according to the constitution of the organization, instructions were given to hold the AGM after completing the financial audit activities properly.
Meanwhile, some members expressed doubts about the adjournment of the AGM without any hearing on the basis of a letter lodged by a person who is not even a BASIS member. Even though, he did not say anything in public, that fear now came true. Amid all these dramata, the election of the 15th Executive Committee of BASIS will be held on 8 May 2024 at the RAWA Convention Center located in Mohakhali of the capital as scheduled earlier. As an investigation, two organizations responsible for organizing the BASIS SoftExpo held in 2023 were accused of paying bills of about two crore taka to the accounts of the organization and not to the accounts of different people. The appointed audit firm Meezan & Co. was relieved of duty without informing the Executive Committee (EC) and holding a special extended meeting (EGM) after raising questions about these illegal transactions. Instead, a fresh audit report was prepared by Adhikari & Co. audit firm. According to BASIS sources, the meeting of BASIS executive committee was held last Saturday (March 9) after sending various documents including invitation and audit report to the members ahead of the AGM. BASIS President Russell T Ahmed was questioned about the change of audit firm. At one stage BASIS President Russell T Ahmed and Vice President (Finance) Fahim Ahmed explained that to fulfill the audit objections raised by the previous audit firm Mizan & Co., an additional tax of Tk 1.6 million had to be paid. A new audit firm had been appointed to avoid this tax. Three directors of BASIS also gave 'Note of Dissent' to BASIS in the case of illegal transactions and change of audit firm in secret.