Bangladeshi Audit Company Howladar Yunus & Co. Selected for AQR of 10 Commercial Banks of Nepal

The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has selected Howladar Yunus & Co. CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS, a Bangladeshi audit company, for the Asset Quality Review (AQR) of 10 large commercial banks.

The NRB decided to sign an agreement with the company for 6,254,912 Nepalese Rupees after it was deemed technically qualified under Sub-section 2 of Section 38 of the Public Procurement Act, 2063. The financial proposal was opened after this selection.

After the NRB invited applications in the financial year 2081 (Nepali calendar year), six companies participated in the competition. However, only Howladar Yunus & Co. was found technically qualified in the technical proposal evaluation.

Expressing dissatisfaction with the selection process, Satish Subedi, director of S. Subedi & Associates, representing a competing company, Mehra JKSS SSBD, filed a writ petition against the NRB and the Public Procurement Monitoring Office in the Supreme Court. Following this, the NRB halted the process of opening the financial proposal.

However, a joint bench of Supreme Court Justices Dr. Manoj Kumar Sharma and Nripadhwaj Niroula did not uphold the interim order on June 24 (Asar 09), paving the way for the NRB to proceed with the audit process.