The article discusses some of the key challenges facing the audit profession in light of increased regulatory scrutiny and public expectations. It notes that auditors play an important role in examining company accounts and financial reports and providing credible assurance to shareholders and investors. However, the profession faces challenges to maintain independence and objectivity. With growing technological changes, auditors must also adapt to ensure procedures keep pace to detect issues like fraud. Overall, audit firms need to focus on rebuilding trust through high quality, transparent audits and upholding principles of integrity, objectivity and due professional care.

1. January-March2018BangladeshMovingAhead
January - March 2018
MOVING AHEAD
BANGLADESH
]]
2018
2021
2024
2041
Membership Scheme of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW) allows the members of ICAB
to apply for ICAEW membership based on their experience.
Eligibility criteria of this membership scheme are a series of questions which assess ICAB Member’s experience, achievements,
skills and expertise. Each application must be supported by an eligible sponsor. Applicants need to complete an Examination
of Experience.
Details of ICAEW Membership Scheme is available at http://www.icaew.com/membership/becoming-a-member/
members-of-other-bodies/campaigns/pathways-to-membership.
It is noted that ICAB signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England
and Wales (ICAEW) in 2009 and in continuation and successful implementation of the said MoU, the follow up phase of the
same MoU was signed with the ICAEW in 2014 and in London in 2017. ICAB has been working with ICAEW as the learning and
professional development partner, and also recognized as an approved tuition provider of ICAEW.
As per MoU ICAB Members can be the members of ICAEW after successful completion of 04 papers out of 15. These
members have the opportunity to apply for UK Practicing Certificate (PC) subject to meeting the standard ICAEW PC
requirement.
Recognition of ICAB membership by ICAEW
Members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) are eligible to apply for membership of the
Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), a globally recognised membership body for the public sector.
An MoU between ICAB and CIPFA, UK was signed on 28 January 2017.Under this MoU ICAB member can be the member of
CIPFA upon fulfilling some criteria.
ICABMembers in good standing having five or more years post-qualification public sector experience are eligible for Full
Membership of CIPFA as Chartered Public Finance Accountant (CPFA) and the members having fewer than five years
post-qualification public sector experience are eligible for Affiliate member of CIPFA (CIPFA Affiliat).
ICAB members having CIPFA Affiliate membership, or having no working experience in public sector can gain CPFA status by
successfully completing exams of only two papers i.e. Public Sector Financial Reporting and Strategic Public Finance from the
CIPFA qualification.
Recognition of ICAB Membership by CIPFA, UK
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) signed an agreement with the International Financial Reporting
Standards (IFRS) Foundation which empowers only ICAB in Bangladesh for development and publication of Bangladesh
Financial Reporting Standards (BFRS), Bangladesh Accounting Standards (BAS) and BFRS for SMEs.
Under this agreement, ICAB has got the copyright license to publish both in print and online electronic editions of BFRS, BAS
and BFRS for SMEs using IFRS, IAS and IFRS for SMEs as issued by the International Accounting Standards Boards (IASB) and
to distribute English language version of these standards in Bangladesh. In accordance with the terms of agreement ICAB has
entered into formal collaboration with the IFRS Foundation and committed to a convergence path towards the full adoption
of IFRS.
IFRS Agreement
ICAB is an active member of International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), Confederation of Asian and Pacific
Accountants(CAPA) and South Asian Federation of Accountants(SAFA). ICAB is very proactive in SAFA and CAPA. Current
SAFA President has been elected from ICAB and the Executive Secretary appointed from the same Institute. In the year 2012,
2013 and 2014 ICAB has been highly appreciated by IFAC for its continued commitment and compliance with Statement of
Membership Obligations (SMOs), which cover the requirements of quality assurance, education in line with international
education standards, auditing, financial reporting and public sector accounting standards, auditing, investigation and
disciplinary matters.
Other Memberships
ICAB has signed a Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) with the Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Ireland (CPA
Ireland) on December 2012.
According to the signed MRA to attain the CPA Ireland membership, ICAB members have to complete and pass only 01 paper
out of 17 papers of CPA Ireland examination.
ICAB members need to pass CPA Ireland’s only one examination from the Professional Stage 2, “Strategy and Leadership” and
an On-line “Overview of Irish Tax and law”.
CPA-Ireland Membership is open to ICAB Members
GLOBAL
RECOGNITION
OF ICAB
www.icab.org.bd

2. 1JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant
ISSN 1993-3649
EDITORIAL BOARD CONTACT US
Chairman
Dr. Jamshed S A Choudhury FCA
Co-Chairman
Harun Mahmud FCA
Members
Akhtar Sohel Kasem FCA
A F Nesaruddin FCA
Nasir Uddin Ahmed FCA
Md. Shahadat Hossain FCA
Gopal Chandra Ghosh FCA
Moddassar Ahmed Siddique FCA
Amanullah Khan FCA
M Idris Ali FCA
Masih Malik Chowdhury FCA
Dr. Md. Abu Sayed Khan FCA
Md Abdus Salam FCA
Mohammad Zahid Hossain FCA
S. M. Rafiqul Islam FCA
Dr. ASM Hossain Tayiab FCA
Mohammad Redwanur Rahman FCA
Muhammad Aminul Hoque FCA
Md. Zahidul Islam Khan FCA
Sk. Md. Tarikul Islam ACA
Dhali Tanvir Ahmad Siddiqui FCA
Anika Sultana FCA
Bidhan Chandra Mandal ACA
Md Anwar Hossain ACA
Ismat Jahan ACA
Afratul Kawsar ACA
Mustaq Ahmed ACA
Sazib Kumar Saha ACA
Md. Faruk Hossain ACA
Zoinul Abedin Sakil ACA
Khosnur Jahan ACA
Md. Abdul Wahab Akanda ACA
Ataur Rahman ACA
Farhad Hussain ACA
Md. Muktadir Hossain ACA
Momena Hossain Rupa ACA
Chairman DRC-ICAB
Member Secretary
Mohammed Emdadul Haque FCA
Technical Adviser, ICAB
Published by the Editorial Board of the Council
The Institute of Chartered
Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB)
CA Bhaban
100 Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue
Dhaka 1215, Bangladesh
880 2 9115340, 9612612100
9117521, 9137847 (Off.)
880 2 9125266
secretary@icab.org.bd
facebook.com/icabdhaka
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The Bangladesh Accountant
"The opinions expressed in this
publication are those of the
respective authors themselves
and do not necessarily reflect the
views of the Editorial Board of the
Institute of Chartered
Accountants of Bangladesh
(ICAB) or ICAB itself."
DISCLAIMER

3. 2 JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant
ICAB PUBLICATIONS
Contents
January - March 2018
P6
for more details, please visit
www.icab.org.bd
P6 A Ringing Bell: Alarm for the
Audit Professionals
Md. Rokonuzzaman FCA
P11 Cyber Security in Banks and
Financial Institutions:
A Highbrow Exegesis
M Jalal Hussain FCA
P17 Arbitrary and Unlawful
Attachment of Bank Accounts
of Assessees Not in Default by
Tax Authorities
K M Hasan FCA
P23 Human Resources (HR)
Disclosure Practices Evidence
from Commercial Banks of
Bangladesh
1
Imtiaz Alam FCA
2
Fahmida Akhter
3
Mohammad Rokibul Hossain
P32 Factors Determining Glass
Ceiling That Influences Women
Career Development:
A Study On Selected Private
Commercial Banks in Dhaka City
1
Sheikh Emran Shirage
2
Md. Shawfiqul Islam
3
K.A.M. Rifat Hasan
P4 Editorial
P5 President’s Desk
ICAB publications include, inter
alia, a quarterly journal titled 'The
Bangladesh Accountant' and a
monthly mouthpiece 'ICAB News
Bulletin'.
In the quarterly journal articles of
ICAB Members, Members from
other Accountancy bodies,
Academics and Business Leaders
from home and abroad are
published. These articles cover a
wide area of our profession, i.e,
Auditing, Accounting, Financial
and Economic.
The monthly news bulletin
publishes latest ICAB events
mostly of the month it is
published. This bulletin also acts
as an information hub for the
Members to keep up to date what
is happening in and around ICAB.
In addition to these two regular
publications, ICAB also publishes
books, monographs, booklets and
Students’ Study Manuals
regularly.

4. 3JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant
The Bangladesh Accountant
P41 Pitfalls of Existing Rules on
Investment Abroad by
Bangladeshis
M Idris Ali FCA
P45 Proposed CGG, Criticism and
Recommendations
Muhammed Omar Faruk Ripon FCA
P53 Wellsprings of Government's
Revenue and Propositions for
Improving Revenue Accumulation
S M Ashfaqur Rahman ACA
P65 Corporate Environmental
Reporting: An Immanent Critique
1
Dewan Mahboob Hossain
2
Amirus Salat
P73 Blockchain Technology and
Bitcoin Currency:
The Features and Potentiality
M S Siddiqui
P77 Prospects and Challenges of
Financing through Capital Market
M. Shaifur Rahman Mazumdar FCA
P84 Yoon Model and Modified Jones
Model in Detecting Earnings
Management: An Empirical Study
on Cement Industry of Bangladesh
1
Mohammad Saif Uddin Bhuiyah
2
Mohammad Alam Shikdar
3
Sabina Yesmine
P94 Solar Energy: Silent Revolution
in Power Sector of Bangladesh
Mohammad Zahid Hossain FCA
P98 So You Aspire to be a CFO?
Muallem A Choudhury
P102 Intellectual Capital Disclosures:
In Bangladeshi Ready-made Garments
Sector Status and Trends
1
Leena Afroz Mostofa Chowdhury
2
Sharmin Akter
3
Farhana Sultana ACA
P112 Financial Determinants of Stock Price in
Banking Sector: Evidence from Listed Banks
in the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) Ltd.
1
Arif Ahammed
2
Amirus Salat
P122 Role of CFOs in Technological Transformation
Dewan Nurul Islam FCA
P126 Bangladesh as Neo-MIC:
Opportunities and Challenges
Shahidul Islam ACA
P130 Some Thoughts on
Performing Dynamics in SoCBs
Masih Malik Chowdhury FCA
News & Events
News Bulletin
Journal
Circular & Notice
Digital Highlights
www.icab.org.bd

5. Dear valued readers, this is the
consecutive two years I have been
heading the Editorial Board under
which the ICAB quarterly journal ‘The
Bangladesh Accountant’ is being
published. I hope we shall bring the
publication in more innovative
manner in coming days. This issue of
the journal would come out when
Bangladesh has attained the status of
developing country. UN committee
for development policy declared
Bangladesh as Developing Country in
March 2018.
Our economy is gradually expanding
and it will be 30th largest economy of
the world in terms of purchasing
power parity (PPP) and Gross
Domestic Products(GDP) in next few
years. To assess this eligibility,
Bangladesh has already achieved the
benchmark of three specially
designed indices; income, human
assets and economic vulnerability
that means Gross National Income
(GNI) per capita. It has already
crossed the income criterion
threshold US $1,026 per capita income
for trashing the line of least developed
countries.
However, Bangladesh has to maintain
its ongoing development trend until
2024 to get the developing status
permanently. At present it has been
ranked 99th as the most competitive
economy in the world, up seven
notches from the last year’s ranking
which is encouraging for us. We hope
government would initiate pragmatic
policies to expedite development
wheels of the country as our land has
enormous opportunities to grow up.
ICAB is maintaining strong liaison with
the Ministries and other regulatory
bodies to help the government in
formulating policies including
proposed Companies Act, Trade
Organization Act, etc.
Government has envisaged a plan to
attain status of developed country by
2041. To achieve this long-expected
dream, development of infrastructure,
power, energy, technology,
knowledge and skilled manpower are
ardent necessary. Regrettably still our
education system requires to match
with the need of our industry which is
sine qua non. Coalition between the
education, profession and skills are
highly needed for ensuring sustainable
development.
The Bangladesh Accountant specially
focuses on the macro and micro
economy, trade and commerce, capital
Market, investment, international
economy, etc. This January-March
issue contains articles depict the
current economic scenario, problems
and prospect. Readers would find
profound information on the direction
of economy going through towards
getting permanent status of
developing country.
My warmest greetings to you all.
4 JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant
“This
January-
March issue
contains
articles depict
the current
economic
scenario,
problems and
prospect.
Readers would
find profound
information on
the direction
of economy
going through
towards
getting
permanent
status of
developing
country.”
Editorial
Dr. Jamshed Sanyiath
Ahmed Choudhury FCA
Chairman – Editorial Board
Council Member - ICAB

6. 5JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant
The Bangladesh Accountant
President’s Desk
“I am
confident that
the readers of
The
Bangladesh
Accountant
must have
observed that
over the years,
the journal has
progressed and
maintained its
standard as
authority on
finance and
accounting for
the
academicians
and
professionals
acceptable to
society and
other economic
field.”
Needless to say, it is a mammoth
task to bring a new issue of a
Journal on Accounting, especially
when that Journal aims to publish
high quality manuscripts. This
responsibility has been shouldered
by a very efficient editorial board
led by its Chairman. Papers that
have been contributed by
intellectuals deserve special
appreciation.
I would like to take this opportunity
to extend my heartfelt gratitude to
all the members of the editorial
board, reviewers and contributors
for their talented work. I believe
that this issue will be a giant leap
towards a more insightful look at
our professional milieu.
The current issue contains a number
of articles written by some of our
learned external accounting
professionals, academics and other
intelligentsia. We are proud to bring
this issue for our esteemed readers.
Dear members, as you read through
the January-March 2018 Issue, I
would like to recap that the success
of our Quarterly Journal largely
depends on your active involvement
and those of the contribution of your
colleagues and friends. We hope you
will keep supporting our endeavour
tirelessly.
Finally, I appreciate support from
our members as we strive to make
our Journal an authoritative journal on
finance and accountancy profession.
Dewan Nurul Islam FCA
President-ICAB

7. following the standards and
methodologies adopted by the
ICAB (Institute of Chartered
Accountants of Bangladesh). As
the general shareholders cannot
involve themselves in the day to
day operations of the company,
they believe that auditors would
examine the accounts and
related other financial
information and give them a
credible report for their
knowledge and information.
Like all other professions it has
so many challenges too. Despite
all challenges, people tend to
see auditors as a critical filter
sitting in between working
management and the investors.
Audit is an organized profession
run by professional accountants
governed by the rules and
guidelines of IFAC (International
Federation of Accountants) and
various laws within the country
a firm operates in.
International Standards on
Auditing (ISA) promulgated by
the IFAC/IAASB delineate
numerous guidelines for the
audit professionals to apply in
their audit and similar other
engagements. Apart from it,
individual country within its own
jurisdiction makes various laws
and regulations to regulate the
professionals and their
activities. In addition, one of the
units of IFAC known as
International Ethics Standard
Board for Accountants (IESBA)
has documented Code of Ethics
applicable for the professional
accountants.
The core of all these is to make
sure that accountants, while
discharging their duties and
reamble
Over last couple of
decades, few incidences
including dissolution of Arthur
Andersen (the then one of the
big 5 global accounting firms)
from the globe in 2001 and
recently declared two years ban
on audits of listed entities by
Price water house Coopers
(popularly known as PwC) with
substantial amount of financial
penalty in India have given
intensive jolt over the
profession of audit. In
Bangladesh, we have also
examples of failure of different
magnitude! In the wake of such
great shocks, we, the audit
professionals, must critically
look into our own practice
models and methodologies with
clear objectives to reposition
ourselves, wherever needed, so
that potential disaster can be
avoided!
Audit, by its nature, is a noble
profession across the globe for
the sensitivity and value of the
services it delivers to society
but in particular, trade and
commerce communities!
Functional part of the
management is responsible for
reporting of financial
information under the
respective legal jurisdiction the
company operates in. On the
other hand, as required by law,
auditors (Chartered
Accountants who are licensed
to carry on the profession of
audits), an independent party
being appointed by the
shareholders in the Annual
General Meeting (AGM),
perform audit functions
The Author is a
Chartered Accountant and
a Fellow Member of the
Institute of Chartered Accountants
of Bangladesh-ICAB
P
A Ringing Bell
Alarm for the Audit Professionals
Md. Rokonuzzaman FCA
6 JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant

8. entities, and poor financial reporting –
were able to hide billions of dollars in
debt from failed deals and projects. Chief
Financial Officer Andrew Fastow and
other executives not only misled Enron's
board of directors and audit committee
on high-risk accounting practices, but
also pressured Arthur Andersen (the
auditor of Enron) to ignore the issues.
By the unusual effect of the engineered
financial information the market price of
Enron soared up to $90.75 in mid-2000
which again dropped to less than $1 by
end of November 2001. The US Securities
and Exchange Commission started
probing into the fact and the Houston
based Dynegy wished to purchase Enron
at that extreme low price, but the deal
naturally failed. Many executives at Enron
were indicted for a variety of charges and
some were later sentenced to prison.
Enron's auditor, Arthur Andersen, was
found guilty in a United States District
Court of illegally destroying documents
relevant to the SEC investigation which
voided its license to audit public
companies, effectively closing the
business.
We as audit professionals would pay
focus on what termed as auditor’s failure
with respect to such unprecedented
corporate damage. Big picture-wise
auditors were blamed for their failure to
identify fake and inflated financial
information which eventually resulted in
millions of dollars loss in the hands of
shareholders. On the other hand, while
SEC approached to investigate into the
matters, the respective partner of Arthur
Anderson was found to have instructed
his office to shred all documents related
to Enron audit! So, whatever else the
audit firm wished to say supporting their
logic, methodologies etc. really did not
work saving them. The ruling against
Arthur Anderson was however
We all know that we have many
limitations while auditing the
financial statements of a company.
The methodologies that are
prescribed as standards for the audit
professionals hardly allow detecting
intentional frauds and forgery that
might be built into the financial
statement under review. In fact, the
respective legislation does not
necessarily wish auditors to unveil all
these intentional fraudulent treatments
in the financial information!
responsibilities, would act and deliver with utmost
diligence applying their competence and
appropriate skills. Despite having all these
regulations in force, we often come across
information on the failure of the auditors to
conduct their duties as diligently as they are
expected to.
Enron Incidence and Consequences
The Enron scandal, publicized in October 2001,
eventually led to the bankruptcy of the Enron
Corporation, an American energy company based
in Houston, Texas, and the de facto dissolution of
Arthur Andersen (AA), which was one of the Big 5
audit and accountancy firms in the world. In
addition, being the largest bankruptcy
reorganization in American history at that time,
Enron was cited as the biggest audit failure.
Enron was formed in 1985 by Kenneth Lay after
merging Houston Natural Gas and Inter North.
Several years later, when Jeffrey Skilling was
hired, he developed a staff of executives who – by
the use of accounting loopholes, special purpose
7JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant
ARTICLE

9. developments until the world
recession hit them putting them
awestruck. In 2009 a scam
came out where it was
mentioned that Mr. Ramalinga
Raju, the Chairman had
manipulated the accounts in
several ways leading to a
disaster which he admitted
later. This incident brought
about a cyclone of concern and
confusion across corporate
world in India in particular and
the rest of the globe at large. As
instant consequences legal
actions followed including
arresting of Raju brothers, CFO
of Satyam and so on.
But as audit professionals our
attention got locked elsewhere
seeing that PwC, the respective
audit firm who were their
auditors over the years failed to
detect the fraudulent
treatments in the financial
statements they audited!
Sometime in 2015 the special
CBI court held Raju and nine
other officials guilty of cheating.
Among those held guilty were
two former partners at PwC
who were engaged dealing with
audits of Satyam financials.
Satyam being a listed company,
the case naturally came into the
attention of the Security and
Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
They took several actions
including barring Raju brothers
from Capital markets. After
having due process of
investigation and related other
actions, SEBI had recently
declared their verdict against
PwC, the audit firm recording
five charges as follows:
• Evolving a new law
codifying corporate
governance rules and many
related regulations in the US
(one of the fastest enacted
laws in the history of US);
• Almost concremation of
Enron and their auditor
Arthur Andersen (the then
one of the Big 5s);
Satyam Incident and
Consequences
Satyam Computer Services Ltd.
was incorporated in 1987 as a
private limited company in India
for providing software
development and consultancy
services to large corporations.
The company was promoted by
B Rama Raju and B Ramalinga
Raju.
The company over the years
became one of the largest
technology industries in India
and thereafter there was no
looking back on its way to next
level expansions and
overturned at the US Supreme
Court later, but by that time
Arthur Anderson had lost
majority of their customers and
had ceased operating. The
Arthur Anderson had to die a
sad death in 2002 putting
thousands of white collar
people workless across the
globe! Unfortunately, except for
few directly guilty of offence,
thousands of professionals
faced the consequence which
was not due to their fault!
This unprecedented disaster
brought about some
discernable changes in the
market which were thought to
be inevitable consequences and
were visible in terms of:
• Bankruptcy of one of the
largest companies in the US;
• Elimination of an
accounting firm Arthur
Anderson with working
people of about 100
thousand across the globe;
8 JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant
A Ringing Bell
Alarm for the Audit Professionals

10. court, but by the time they get a
favorable order, if at all, a
substantial damage would take
place in the image of the audit
profession. Moreover, PwC
being one of the big 4s in audit
firm network in the globe, the
expected sense of disgrace
would go even more on the face
of the audit profession.
Ringing Bell Awakening
Audit Professionals
We all know that we have many
limitations while auditing the
financial statements of a
company. The methodologies
that are prescribed as standards
for the audit professionals
hardly allow detecting
intentional frauds and forgery
that might be built into the
financial statement under
review. In fact, the respective
legislation does not necessarily
wish auditors to unveil all these
intentional fraudulent
treatments in the financial
information! However, a
sensible audit may act as critical
deterrent factor for the
fraudulent practices/intentions
of the functional managements.
From the cases we discussed so
far, to me it was not just a case
of deficiency in knowledge and
methodologies. These were
more of ethical issues on the
part of the functional
management of the company
and Engagement partners of
the audit firms. It is natural that
functional management would
try to take the advantage of
their tricky/engineered
accounting practices. So, it may
not be of any value if we point
they generated from this
engagement and a penal
interest.
The PwC is naturally
disappointed and may prefer a
stay order from the higher
The SEBI on charges of the
points stated in the table above
has barred PwC from audits for
two years across India. It has
also asked two partners and the
firm to disgorge about Rs. 13
crore that includes the revenue
Sl.
no.
What went
wrong
Observation by SEBI Quantification
1. Non-existent
cash/bank
balances
The auditors ignored first set
of confirmations received
directly from the banks and
relied conclusively only on
those received from the
company, showing deposit
balances, which were tallying
with what was shown in the
books.
Rs. 5,040
crore
2. Inflated sales
revenues
The auditors failed to do the
walk-through tests in respect
of the invoices; feigned
ignorance of the internal
control mechanism including
XL porting in IMS and OF
stages; chose to ignore
internal audit reports; relied
on the ledger entries prepared
by the company and did not
conduct the audit as
mandated by the AS or the
guidance note with bonafide
intention of doing an actual
audit.
7,588 fake
invoices
3. Overstated
debtors’
positions
PwC failed to perform the basic
audit function of ensuring
adequate external
confirmations of debtor
balances from the debtors in
question, which in turn
resulted in it failing to notice
the inflated and false figures
concerning SCSL.
Several 100
crores
4. TDS benefits
claimed at
variance with
TDS shown in
books
Not
quantified
5. Failed to
detect
receipts
Rs. 1,425
crore
9JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant
ARTICLE

11. 9. Engagement partner/
manager should remain a
bit more careful building
relationship with the client
management. Close
friendship/relationship with
functional management has
noteworthy influence on the
independent behavior of an
auditor;
10. Dissemination of concurrent
success and failure stories
to the staff members should
be a regular practice with a
view to helping them
repositioning their
mindsets;
11. Creating a culture that
encourages respective
audit team members
building innovative minds in
terms of skepticism/finding
new ways to think while
performing an audit
engagement;
12. Introducing reward and
punishment against
appropriate successes and
failures respectively;
13. Last but not the least,
building a good governance
structure where issues and
uncertainties can be
professionally escalated,
discussed and resolved.
Sources
Some information in the write
up are picked up verbatim from
various sources including
internet-based reports while
some are crafted as the writer
thought fit for the context.
4. Create an environment
where adequate scope is
prevalent to offer regular
training on fast changing
information technology that
are extremely useful in
accomplishing a credible
audit;
5. To ensure regular
monitoring on the quality of
the work, there should be
one independent quality
assurance team functional
at all times;
6. To ensure a culture that
proper documentation of
work papers,
correspondences and
related evidential matters
becomes an embedded
habit into the professional
staff members;
7. There should be
demonstrated culture
prevalent in the firm with
respect to ethical practice
across all activities in the
firm. To have ready
reference on ethical codes,
firms may consult with the
handbook on IESBA Code
of Ethics which ICAB has
circulated to its members.
Examples may be picked up
from our daily lives to help
staff members understand
how to implement those in
their work life;
8. Deliveries should be cross
checked by the partners,
where firm is proprietorship,
a senior manager having
adequate knowledge may
be entrusted to deal with
the objective of this point;
our finger towards the
unscrupulous management, it
may be worth repositioning our
mindsets while staying the audit
profession. We may consider a
few things, which are not very
difficult practicing, would in turn
save us from severe disaster!
Recommendations
As an active professional in the
current market, I may offer few
points which I feel very
pertinent with respect to setting
precaution on the part of
sensitive audit professionals.
Request to the readers, not to
consider my suggestions as
conclusive ones nor would
consider me as an authoritative
writer on the subject matter.
Suggestions are:
1. Recruitment and
deployment of the audit
professionals should be
very objective and sensible
keeping in mind that their
performance would have
substantial impact on image
of the firm and the
profession at large;
2. Regular training program
on topical matters for the
audit professionals and
related staff members
should be part and parcel of
the regular activities in an
audit firm;
3. Introducing a culture that
encourages staff members
to study the relevant
professional matters from
published books and
booklets, journals,
legislative circulars/
directives, internets, etc;
10 JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant
A Ringing Bell
Alarm for the Audit Professionals

12. 11JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant
ARTICLE
accounts, frauds, cyber-crimes
and cyber-terrorism. Cyber
attacks are really big threats to
economic and financial security,
better way of life and the whole
national security. The recent
cyber-crimes that are
happening every day in
high-income. middle-income
and low-income economies,
make the stakeholders,
policy-makers and state leaders
appallingly worried. The news
media, newspapers, TV, Radio-
all media are always covered up
with news of cyber-crimes,
hacking of bank accounts and
creating innumerable problems
in the computer systems,
computer networks. The
technology and systems for
combating cyber-attacks have
been precocious. The notorious
but talented cyber-criminals
have also upgraded their
knowledge, techniques and
devices. These criminals are
imperceptible; we don’t see
them, we don’t hear them and
we can’t latch them but they
can fusillade the computer
systems, networks of any bank
or any FI to draw and illegally
transfer money beyond borders
globally.
What’s Cyber Security?
Cyber security is the form of
technologies and progression
which practices safety and
protection of network,
computers, data and programs
from illegal access, cyber
threats, attacks or damages. It
deals with monitoring physical
entrée to hardware alongside
protecting smudge coming via
network access and code
ntroduction
The industrial
transmogrification in the
present globalized world has
moved the modern civilization
to a wonderful digital compass
where digital rhythms wake up
people from sleep at the early
hours of the day. Peoples’
personal, professional and other
lives have gone digital; they
work, live, and move in the
cyberspace. They use
computers, internets, online,
mobile phones with eclectic
devices every day and night,
morning and evening; to talk,
email, text, chat and twitter with
friends, office colleagues,
bosses and with family
members. People do businesses
online, on cell phones and other
digital niceties; from banking to
shopping, from government
services to private services,
from manufacturing to
distribution. Cyber world and
digital infrastructure make all
these happenings smoothly,
moving at the fastest speed
than the non-digital world.
Cyber technologies are widely
and comprehensively used in
banks and financial institutions
(FIs) in high-income,
middle-income and low-income
economies.
The increasing reliance on cyber
technologies like, internet,
online payments from banks
and Financial Institutions (FIs),
computerized software,
e-commerce, mobile banking,
banking through ATM booths
and many more, make the
people frangible to
cyber-attacks, hacking of
The Author is a
Chartered Accountant and
a Fellow Member of the
Institute of Chartered Accountants
of Bangladesh-ICAB
I
Cyber Security in Banks and Financial Institutions
A Highbrow Exegesis
M Jalal Hussain FCA

13. 12 JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant
committed and red the least. (Source:
ITU). The International
Telecommunications Union (ITU) is the
United Nations’ specialized agency for
information and communication
technologies.
Targets of Cyber Attackers
Cyber-attackers, cyber-thieves,
fraudsters and hacktivists always go
where money flows, where financial
transactions take place. Banks and
financial institutions’ main business is to
deal with money-received from their
stakeholders and deposit-holders. These
sectors of industries have become the
archetypal target of all the hacktivists. In
the year 2017, cyber-attacks on banks
and FIs covered 31% of the cyber-attacks
that took place globally and ranked as
number one vulnerable sector. The banks
and FIs rank third in the number of data
breaches, behind the leader, public
organizations, and the information
industry, according to Verizon’s Data
Breach Investigations Report. The banks
and FIs have been adopting most
sophisticated and latest designed
equipment and software to combat
cyber-attacks in every year. But the
cyber-fraudsters are found to be adroit
and smarter enough to come with more
advanced and sophisticated technologies
to interrupt, intercept, whittle and hack
the banks’ and FIs’ networks for personal
gains.
The 2016-17 cyber-attacks to banks and
FIs were different and forward-thinking
than that of year 2015-16. A Ponemon
Institute survey release found that 43% of
US companies had experienced a
security breach in the past year. Big
names were impacted, including eBay,
American Express, JPMorgan Chase, and
the Home Depot. And with the big names
came big headlines. The rhythm of
fissures, headlines, and feedbacks was
In the year 2017, cyber-attacks on
banks and FIs covered 31% of the
cyber-attacks that took place
globally and ranked as number one
vulnerable sector. The banks and
FIs rank third in the number of data
breaches, behind the leader, public
organizations, and the information
industry, according to Verizon’s
Data Breach Investigations Report.
injection. The sole purpose of cyber security is to
defend, prevent, protect or alleviate infliction to
or destruction of the integrity of computing
assets belonging to or connecting to an
organization’s network, applications, devices and
data. Components of cyber security include:
• Application security
• Data security
• System security
• Fiasco recuperation/business coherence
arranging
• Operational security
• End-client training
Cyber Security in Banks and Financial Institutions
A Highbrow Exegesis
To make the cyber security strategy successful,
banks and FIs must continually develop to keep
stride with the fluctuating strategies and
technologies used by hackers. More importantly it
requires a multi-pronged effort that includes
security management for better monitoring and
visibility; cloud shields for all environments;
mobile security that follows wherever the
business leads; threat deterrence and
anti-ransomware technology; and security
appliances that grow with business needs to
current and future cyber security requirements.
The Heat Map of National Cybersecurity
Commitments with dark green being the most

14. institutions were targeted by a
new malware attack aimed at
stealing passwords. This
followed the discovery in
January of attack aimed at the
Bank of Montreal (BMO), Royal
Bank of Canada (RBC) and
National Bank of Canada and a
number of other institutions
around the world that included
ensnaring customers to fake
bank Web sites.
Financial institutions have
always been in the sights of
hackers for palpable reasons.
Recently the world’s greatest
ever heist took place in
Bangladesh in which the
cyber-criminals figured out how
to cheat $101 million from the
record of Central Bank of
Bangladesh (Bangladesh Bank)
with the Federal Reserve Bank
of New York. The hacktivists/
digital-offenders supposedly
broke the PC frameworks of
Bangladesh Bank, stole its
installments exchange secret
word and accreditations.
How to Protect Banks
and FIs from Cyber
Attacks?
Aegis is better than healing is
the oldest and universally
accepted adage, all-time-fit to
shield banks and FIs from the
looming cyber-attacks. The five
core cybersecurity functions of
the National Institute of
Standards and Technology
(NIST)’s Cybersecurity
Framework are well known
preventive measures that the
banking industry and FIs may
implement. These five functions
provide organization and
heist is an age-old crime, the
methods deployed were wholly
from the 21st century.
Bangladesh, an emerging
economy, recently faced
cyber-attacks on ATM and
many consumers lost huge
amount of money from many
ATM booths because of
enfeebled and etiolated
protection systems.
With the revolution in computer
technologies, the evolution of
methods to deliver banking
services to various customers at
national and international levels
has been changed. The banking
industry has gone from wide
spread use of Automated Teller
Machine (ATM) in the 1980s, to
modern points of sale (PoS)
terminals in 1990s, to internet
and on-line banking in 2000s
and mobile banking in 2015. the
new and evolving ways of
meeting consumers’ demand,
however, come with new
cyber-fraud patterns and
evolving risks of cyber-attacks
from 360 degree angles.
In 2015-16, 15 Canadian financial
inexorable and unabated. It’s
hard to imagine that how many
organizations in this sector will
be able to reinforce, gird and
inspissate their defense tools
and technologies over the
upcoming years and future
years to minimize and curtail
the cyber-attacks. Banks and
FIs need to implement new
security measures, tactics and
technologies keeping in mind
that fraudsters and hacktivists
would surely respond by
changing their operational
techniques and methods.
Cyber-criminals are constantly
developing new methods and
technologies to attack
traditional channels used by
banks and FIs like ATM, Mobile
Banking. In a highly coordinated
attack involving people across
some 50 countries,
cybercriminals worked with
local groups to finagle and
knead the financial systems and
magnetic strips on debit and
credit cards to shear millions of
dollars from thousands of ATMs
around the world during two
separate attacks. While an ATM
13JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant
ARTICLE

15. 14 JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant
Cyber Security in Banks and Financial Institutions
A Highbrow Exegesis
that today's approach for cyber
security must be based on
detection of attacks and
preventing the criminals from
leaving with key assets. They
need to be well-equipped with
knowledge and professional
training to deal with the
imminent cyber-threats.
National Australia Bank chief
executive Andrew Thorburn
says “cyber-crime, hacking into
systems and misuse of data is a
huge and growing risk that we
need to a do lot more to
understand”.
Evidence based analysis in
banks and FIs helps prioritize
security investment plans. The
Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
maintains a public database of
breaches across industries. The
total number of records
breached is 907,453,926 since
they started record keeping in
2005. The financial industry’s
result for two-time periods,
2010 and 2016-2017 are shown
in the chart:
attacks, Corporate Account
Take Over (CATO) attacks,
Automated Teller Machine
(ATM cash-out) attacks and
Crypto Locker attacks.
Leadership teams at financial
services organizations
(banks/FIs) need to understand
structure to help the bank
navigate its way to better
protection against cyber
threats. The five core functions
of cybersecurity include:
identify internal and external
cyber risk; protect organization
systems, assets and data; detect
systems in intrusions, data
breaches and unauthorized
access; response to potential
cybersecurity events and
recover from cyber security
events by restoring normal
operations and services.
The National Institute of
Standards and Technology
(NIST), an agency of the U.S.
Department of Commerce
recommended that the
MD/CEO of banks and FIs need
to know and understand clearly
the four basics about
cyber-attacks on banking
industries are: Distributed
Denials of Services (DDoS)
Source: CARSONinc Consulting

16. 15JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant
In his research report titled
“Review of IT Operations of
Banks in Bangladesh 2016,”
Shihab Uddin Khan, associate
professor at BIBM, said: “Some
16% banks mentioned that the
current situation of cyber
security is not enough to
prevent any virtual or physical
damage to information
management system,
perceiving the highest risk.” He
said: “around 36% of the
surveyed banks believe that
they are at high risk of
information loss at any moment.
32% banks reported that they
are under moderate risks,
whereas 12% and 4% banks are
low and very low risks
respectively.”
In many countries in South-East
Asia and Africa, corruption is
pandemic and the donors and
the economists term the
position as catastrophic and
vacillating. Corruption is a
serious threat that stunts
economic development, make
the cyber security system
ineffective, demoralizes the
political system, the public and
private officials, and the general
by banking industry. In order to
understand their adversaries,
banks must anticipate new,
sophisticated forms of attack, or
new versions of old tricks. At
the same time, they must also
work to ensure that their
partners and stakeholders are
secure, as part of strengthening
the entire supply chain of
information to minimize attacks
against the weakest links. They
must do all this while
simultaneously rolling out
services across emerging
channels, such as mobile. It is a
challenging task, but it’s a vital
task to maintain customer trust.
Cyber Security of Banks
and FIs in Bangladesh
A total of 52% banks in
Bangladesh are at high risk of
cyber security, said Bangladesh
Institute of Bank Management
(BIBM) in its study. Of the
banks, 16% are at a very high risk
and 36% at high risk. Cyber
security has become the
country’s most-talked-about
issue in the recent time,
especially after Bangladesh
Bank lost $81 million from its
reserves to international
hackers. Over the week end of
5th February 2016, a group of
hackers attempted to steal $ 951
million from Bangladesh Bank
(Central Bank of Bangladesh) in
Dhaka. Much of this was
protected but the hackers
managed to get away with $ 81
million. Strong cyber security
system, better internal control,
vigilance, fore-sightedness of
the concerned IT personnel
could have failed the cyber
heist.
It’s pretty clear that hacking
attacks have been increasing
and that banks and FIs’
defenses in this area need to
improve by introducing latest
technologies to counter
cyber-attacks, a strong and
comprehensive security
program and providing
adequate training to the
concerned staff.
Mobile banking is the latest
technology that is also
vulnerable to cyber-attacks. The
IT experts suggest that mobile
banking through internet should
employ secure transmission
protocols, such as Hypertext
Transfer Protocol Secure
(HTTPS) that is more difficult to
hack; customer data exchanged
with third-party vendors should
be encrypted; PINs required in
the mobile application should
not be less than 6 characters;
there should be dual
authentication for log-in
credentials; applications should
time out after at most 15
minutes of inactivity; jail-break
device should not be allowed on
the network and heightened
diligence should be taken to
ensure the security and
compliance of vendors. Small
and mid-size banks and credit
unions, in particular, are behind
on installing defenses and aegis,
implementing best security
practice policies. So as they
push more aggressively into
mobile banking services, they
are becoming more vulnerable
to data abysses.
The 21st-century ATM heist
illustrates the growing
complexity of the threats faced
ARTICLE

17. 16 JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant
Cyber Security in Banks and Financial Institutions
A Highbrow Exegesis
emerging countries face the
malaise of corruption,
lawlessness and lack of justice.
The inside-criminals remain
untouched and unpunished due
to the blessings of the
high-class and most powerful
tycoons of the society. The
developed economies are
better off in this respect as they
have strong law, justice and
accountability of the
government, top-management
of banks and all officials.
Only organizations free of
corruption can best weather
this moment of transformation,
guarding against internal and
external hacker threats, while
also empowering
whistle-blowers to protect
against internal misdeeds.
Cyber networks can, like
gunpowder, prove an explosive
material – a powerful tool in the
right hands, but prone to
detonate spectacularly in the
wrong hands. If banking
industry and FIs’ leaders are not
upbeat in dealing with insider
ethical issues, corruption might
just provide the fateful spark
that might destroy the
foundation of banking industry
and FIs especially in the
middle-income and low-income
countries. It’s agreed by all
concerned that
corruption-whether incidental,
systematic or systemic, whether
endemic or planned, anomic or
extrovert, has often been found
in the corruption-riddled
countries profoundly damaging
all preventive and protective
cyber security systems in banks
and FIs.
violations that arise. It’s worth
investing a million dollar to save
a billion-dollar cyber-theft.
Financial colossuses around the
world are spending millions of
dollars into a cyber security
startup that aims to hogtie,
cripple and hamstring phishing
attacks, in which hackers try to
bamboozle people into either
revealing their login credentials,
downloading viruses, or visiting
sites laden with malicious
software. Big banks such as
HSBC, JPMorgan Chase and
American Express, are among
the investors in a new $40
million round of funding for
Menlo Security. Other renowned
investors include General
Catalyst, Ericsson Ventures,
Osage University Partners,
Engineering Capital and Sutter
Hill Ventures.
Conclusion
Cyber-crimes are committed by
the inside criminals as well as by
outside fraudsters. Outside
cyber-attacks can be detected,
controlled, contained but it’s
difficult to safeguard the banks
and FIs from the cyber-attacks
from the inside criminals. The
third world and some so called
people of any organization.
Reduction of corruption,
increasing transparency and
enforcement of accountability
are increasingly necessary to
make the cyber security system
workable in banks and FIs in
Bangladesh.
Investing more Money to
Encounter Cyber Attacks
All these cyber-attacks on
banking industries and FIs
reiterates the extreme need for
investing more money in
modern devices, strategies and
system to combat, encounter
the known, unknown and
up-coming cyber-threats. Smart
and farsighted IT managers of
banks and FIs, need to inveigle
management, the stakeholders
that investments in cyber
security will renitence many, if
not all, of those
concerns—reducing risk,
protecting against fissures,
providing swift response
capabilities, reducing costs and
demonstrating compliance.
Organizations need tools and
resources that reduce the time
and effort to achieve these
goals, while providing ongoing
monitoring and remediation for
new risks and compliance

18. 17JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant
ARTICLE
may, by notice in writing,
require any person from whom
[any money or goods] is due or
may become due to the
assessee, or who holds, or
controls the receipt or disposal
of, or may subsequently hold, or
control the receipt or disposal
of, [any money or goods]
belonging to, or on account of,
the assessee, to pay to the
Deputy Commissioner of Taxes
the sum specified in the notice
on or before the date specified
therein for such payment.
Law in this regard is clear and
above referred sections of law
are not questionable. Rather,
injudicious application of those
sections are questionable.
Actions of the Taxes Authorities
are full of faults. Legal position,
injudicious application, some of
the instances and court cases
are discussed in the succeeding
paragraphs.
Before Attachment of
Bank Accounts Under
Section 143
1. Issuance of Demand Notice
under section 135 is not
ensured.
2. Whether the demanded
amount are correct or not,
that is not ensured
(According to the language
of notice under section 143
can be issued only to the
defaulters, but in practice it
is not followed.)
3. Appeal of the Assessee for
deferment of tax realization
is not considered from
judicial point of view.
ur tax laws give tax
authorities the power to
attach a bank account of
an assessee as an ultimate
measure for recovery of
undisputed arrear tax. But this
power of the tax authorities is
certainly not unfettered. Any
power given to a public
authority must be exercised
judiciously and for the ultimate
purpose of public benefit. But in
case of bank attachment by tax
authorities, it is found that this
power is often exercised in an
unjust and arbitrary manner
causing great harassment and
hardship to the taxpayer. Such
injudicious application of bank
attachment by tax authorities
only increases mistrust and
misgivings between taxpayers
and tax authorities. This is not
desirable at all, and it goes
directly against the concept of
public benefit. In the present
article an attempt has been
made to throw some light an
various aspects of this issue.
Section 143(2) of the Income
Tax Ordinance provides for
attachment of an assessee’s
bank account as a last resort for
recovery of arrear tax, if the
assessee is in default regarding
payment of tax.
Before we proceed, to discuss
the issue in details, relevant
provisions under section 143 of
the Income Tax Ordinance,
1984 are required to be
revisited.
Section 143(2) (a) provides that
for purpose of recovery of any
tax payable by an assesee, the
Deputy Commissioner of Taxes
The Author is a
Chartered Accountant and
a Fellow Member of the
Institute of Chartered Accountants
of Bangladesh-ICAB
O
Arbitrary and Unlawful Attachment of Bank Accounts of
Assessees Not in Default by Tax Authorities
K. M. Hasan FCA

19. 18 JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant
belief of confidence. If there is any dearth
of confidence, the depositors will search
for alternative place, which is not good
for a flourishing economy. Here are the
questions:
1. Of course the subject of bank
attachment is justified. But does the
tax authority seek any consent from
the Assessee before remitting the
deposited money of the Assessee to
the Govt. account? If that is not done,
crisis in confidence of the Assessee is
apparent.
2. Basic ingredient of all laws is `Natural
Justice’, legal explanation of which is
‘Natural Justice demands that the
person is fully aware of the nature of
the allegation against him or her so as
to have a proper opportunity to
present his or her case.’
This subject is not taken into
consideration in this case. Bank
Authorities can inform their client
about this notice issued under
section 143 giving them 7 days time
and can try to solve the issue through
discussion with the Taxes
Department. Otherwise, the client
may be informed that necessary
Law in this regard is clear and above
referred sections of law are not
questionable. Rather, injudicious
application of those sections are
questionable. Actions of the Taxes
Authorities are full of faults. Legal
position, injudicious application,
some of the instances and court
cases are discussed in the
succeeding paragraphs.
4. Instead of issuing the copy of bank
attachment notice to the Assessee, sending of
Tax Inspector to the bank to create pressure
on the Bank Manager for realization of the
demanded tax is contrary to the basic
principle of Aritcle-42 (Rights to Property) of
the Constitution.
5. Attempts are made to encash the Fixed
deposit of the Assessee maintained with the
bank through notice under section 143,
instrument of which are held by the Assessee.
Arbitrary and Unlawful Attachment of Bank Accounts of
Assessees Not in Default by Tax Authorities
6. There is a tendency to issue attachment
notice well before the expiry of the time limit
for submission of Appeal in the case of a
disputed demand.
7. Good intention of the Assessee to pay the tax
is not generally taken into consideration.
A guideline in this respect can be available from
analysis of the Judgment of the Higher Court of
India as being quoted below:
Questions Regarding the Actions of
Bank Authorities
A Bank is the custodian of the money deposited
by its clients and they keep their money on a

20. “Where the income
determined on assessment
was substantially higher
than the returned income,
say twice the latter amount
or more, the collection of
the tax in dispute should be
held in abeyance.”
4. KEC International Limited
Vs. B. R. Balakrishnan &
ORS. (2001) 251 ITR 158
(Bom) (High Court)
Parameters
While considering the stay
application, the authority
concerned will at least
briefly set out the case of
the Assessee.
4.1 In cases where the assessed
income under the impugned
order far exceeds returned
income, the authority will
consider whether the
assessee has made out a
case for unconditional stay.
4.2 In cases where the assessee
relies upon financial
difficulties, the authority
concerned can briefly
indicate whether the
assessee is financially sound
and viable to deposit the
amount if the authority
wants the assessee to so
deposit.
4.3 The authority concerned
will also examine whether
the time to prefer an appeal
has expired. Generally,
coercive measures may not
be adopted during the
period provided by the
statute to go in appeal.
1. There is no unfettered
discretion in public laws, a
public authority possesses
powers only to use them for
public good.
2. CBDT (India) Circular No.
530 dated 16 March 1989
“The Assessing Officer,
while considering the
situation for treating the
Assessee to be not in
default, would consider all
relevant factors having a
bearing on the demand
raised and communicate his
decision to the Assessee in
the form of a speaking
order”.
3. Valvoline Cummins Ltd. Vs.
DCIT (2008 171 Taxman 241
(Delhi), held that in case of a
high pitched assessment
the recovery needs to be
absolutely stayed in view of
CBDT instruction No. 96 dt.
21.8.1969.
action will be taken by the
Bank in accordance with the
notice.
3. Bank Authorities usually
hurriedly transfer the
money of their client to the
Govt. Account being afraid
of the consequence of the
provision of section 143(5).
The reason is that they are
not actually aware of the
correct implementation of
section 143 in processing
the realization of demanded
tax. If required, they should
fight on legal points to
protect the interest of their
depositor.
Some Judgments of the
Higher Courts are
Produced Below
Hon’ble Supreme Court of India
in Food Corporation of India Vs.
M/S Kamdhenu Cattle Feed
Industries JT 1992(6) SC 259
has held that :
19JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant
ARTICLE

21. 20 JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant
Arbitrary and Unlawful Attachment of Bank Accounts of
Assessees Not in Default by Tax Authorities
previous years without there
being a material change in
facts or law, that is a
relevant consideration in
deciding the application for
stay.
5.5 When a bank account has
been attached, before
withdrawing the amount
reasonable prior notice
should be furnished to the
assessee to enable the
assessee to make a
representation or seek
recourse to a remedy in law.
5.6 In exercising the powers of
stay, the AO should not act
as a mere tax gatherer but
as a quasi-judicial authority
vested with the public duty
of protecting the interest of
the Revenue while at the
same time balancing the
need to mitigate hardship
to the assessee. Though the
AO has made an
assessment, he must
objectively decide the
application for stay
considering that an appeal
lies against his order; the
matter must be considered
from all its facets, balancing
the interests of the assessee
alongwith the protection of
the interest of Revenue.
• Any deviation from the
aforesaid guidelines should
be specifically brought to
the notice of the higher
authorities, Tribunal and the
High Courts.
7. In Mahindra and Mahindra
Ltd. v. Assessing Officer
(2007) 295 ITR 43 (Bom)
be made pending
5.1 Expiry of the time limit for
filing an appeal;
5.2 Disposal of a stay
application, if any, moved
by the assessee and for a
reasonable period
thereafter to enable the
assessee to move a higher
forum, if so advised.
Coercive steps may,
however, be adopted where
the authority has reason to
believe that the assessee
may defeat the demand, in
which case brief reasons
maybe indicated.
5.3 The stay application, if any,
moved by the assessee
should be disposed of after
hearing the assessee and
keeping in mind the
guidelines in KEC
International Ltd. vs. B.R.
Balakrishnan (2001) 251 ITR
158 (Bom).
5.4 If the AO has taken a view
contrary to what has been
held in the preceding
However, if the authority
concerned comes to the
conclusion that the
assessee is likely to defeat
the demand, it may take
recourse to coercive action
for which brief reasons may
be indicated in the order.
We clarify that if the
authority concerned
complies with the above
parameters while passing
orders on the stay
application, then the
authorities on the
administrative side of the
department like respondent
No.2 herein need not once
again give reasoned order.
The above parameters are
not exhaustive. They are
only recommendatory in
nature.
5. P r i n c i p l e s / g u i d e l i n e s
prescribed by Bombay
High Court in case of UTI
Mutual Fund 19
Taxman.com 250
No recovery of tax should

22. 21JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant
within the guidelines framed
in the CBDT’s instruction
No. 1914 issued by the
CBDT.The CITalso rejected
stay application,Assessee
filed Writ Petition where
court observed that the
proviso to s. 220(1) which
empowers the AO to
demand payment within a
period lesser than 30 days
with the prior approval of
the JCIT cannot be
exercised casually and
without due application of
mind. The AO & JCIT must
apply their mind on how it
would be detrimental to the
interests of the Revenue to
allow the full period of 30
days and record reasons.
The reasons & approval
must be made available to
the assessee if he seeks
them. Merely because the
end of the financial year is
approaching that cannot
constitute a detriment to
the Revenue. The detriment
to the Revenue must be
akin to a situation where the
demand of the Revenue is
liable to be defeated by an
abuse of process by the
assessee. There is
absolutely no justification
for the AO to demand
payment in 7 days and his
action is high handed and
contrary to law.
9. In Sultan Leather Finishers
Pvt. Ltd. v. CIT (1991) 191 ITR
179 (All) (High Court), the
court held that when
rectification application is
pending the Assessing
Officer cannot proceed with
recovery proceedings.
worsens. Above all, Assessees
lose their confidence in the
taxes department. This has to
be absolutely avoided for the
sake of smooth and blossoming
economy. Nevertheless, taxes
department is the lawful
authority to impose the legal
sections in realizing their
rightful dues, but at the same
time, they have the
constitutional responsibilities to
ensure that in discharging their
aforesaid duties, the right of the
Assessee are not hampered or
mutilated.
8. Firoz Tin Factory v. ACIT
(2012) 71 DTR 185/209
Taxman 458 (Bom. High
Court)
The assessing Officer has
passed an order under
section 143(3) on 9/3/2012
raising huge demand and
directed the assessee to
pay the entire demand
within 7 days even though
the period specified in
220(1) is 30 days. The
assessee filed a stay
a p p l i c a t i o n
u/s220(3)on12/3/2012
which was rejected on the
ground that it did not fall
(High Court), the court held
that, no coercive action
should be taken till the
expiry of the appeal period
against the said order is
over. Therefore the
Assessing Officer is duty
bound to wait for the expiry
of time period of appeal
before proceeding to
recover the tax due.
Contempt of court
proceedings initiated
against AO and Jt. CIT.
Further, let us more elaborately
discuss about this issue.
Sections 135 to 143 are aimed at
realisation of the correct dues of
the Govt. And section 143 is the
last section. But the Taxes
Department at random use it in
the cases of realizing taxes,
guideline or parameter of which
has not been fixed by the NBR.
As a result, Assessees are
unnecessarily harassed. Their
trade and business sustains
losses. Particularly, the
respected aged Assessees lose
their mental balance. Bank
officials unnecessarily face
mental pressure in discharging
their official responsibilities and
their relation with the clients
ARTICLE

23. 22 JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant
Arbitrary and Unlawful Attachment of Bank Accounts of
Assessees Not in Default by Tax Authorities
targets for the collection of
revenue should not be at
the cost of fore closing
remedies available to
assessees for challenging
correctness of demand.
Applications for stay
require judicial
consideration. Rejecting
such applications without
hearing the assessee and
submissions made and
without indicating reasons
for rejection of stay are
impermissible. The court
also laid down model
guidelines for recovery.
13. P r i n c i p l e s / g u i d e l i n e s
prescribed by Bombay
High Court in case of UTI
Mutual Fund 19
Taxman.com 250
We do expect that in the light of
all above discussions and
opinion, the NBR will very soon
compose one clear Guideline for
implementation in respect of
realizing undisputed due taxes
by way of bank attachment, so
that non-defaulter Assessees
are not in harassment.
Lastly, we must appreciate that
our NBR is now quite business
friendly. Dishonest businessmen
avoid tax in so many ways by
false declaration. Let there be
strong action against them as
well. Now NBR is ‘Punish the
culprits and Nourish the honest’.
Let the officers and staff of NBR
be recognized and up lifted for
their good performance.
10. Maheswari Agro Industries
v. UOI (2012) 346 ITR 375
(Raj.) (High Court)
Income assessed by the
Assessing Officer was 47
times of income declared by
assessee. Therefore
instruction No.95 dated 21st
August, 1969 holds the field.
Therefore assessee cannot
be treated as assessee in
default.
11. The Madras High Court in
R.P. David v. Ag. ITO (1972)
86 ITR 699 (Mad) held that,
the fact that the assessee is
financially sound and in a
position to pay is not in
itself a ground for refusing
to exercise the discretion in
granting the stay.
12. UTI Mutual Fund 19
Taxman.com 250 (Bombay)
Facts
AO issued a garnishee order
to the banker of assessee
even before communication
of the order passed on its
stay application. Assessee
also challenged
communication of CBDT
Chairman dated 7-12-2012
officers of department
linking their promotion to
the revenue collection.
Decision
Administrative directions
for fulfilling recovery
Bangladeshi
nationals
working abroad
sent US$1.15
billion in
February 18
which is 17 per
cent lower than
January 18.
However, it was
US$940.75
million in
February 2017.
SOURCE
The Financial Express
2nd
March 2018

24. 23JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant
ARTICLE
stakeholders, Corporations
should focus more on HR
Disclosures.
Keywords
Human Resources, Disclosures,
Commercial banks of
Bangladesh, Employees,
Stakeholders.
Paper Type: Research paper.
Introduction
A firm’s value depends to a
large extent on its human
resource. Strong management,
motivation of employees and a
sound organizational and social
infrastructure can enable a firm
to gain cherished success
(Abhayawansa and Abeysekera,
2008). Without proper internal
control system and a sound
organization structure, a skilled
employee may not be able to
contribute as he/she supposed
to be. Kansal and Joshi (2015)
opined that “Human capital
includes knowledge, skills and
technical ability, and personal
qualities such as aptitude,
attitude, energy, intelligence,
commitment, the ability to learn,
aptitude, creativity, imagination,
collaboration, team
participation and a focus on
achieving the objectives of the
employer company”. It is
termed as value creators for
companies (Huang et al, 2013).
Therefore, employers intend to
invest a huge amount on their
employees in order to get a
competitive advantage. (Kansal
and Joshi, 2015; Huang et al,
2013; Khan and Khan, 2010);
Research on human resources
bstract
The purpose of this paper
is to examine the extent of
Human Resources (HR)
disclosure in the annual reports
of commercial banks in
Bangladesh. Content Analysis is
used in analyzing the study.
Annual reports of 30
commercial banks are examined
to explore the trends and nature
of HR disclosure using Space
Incidence Method for a period
of 3 years. Subsequently, a set
of HR theme is investigated
using disclosure index and find
out five most disclosed and five
least disclosed HR item. The
analysis reveals that there is an
increasing trend of HR
disclosure practices by
commercial banks in
Bangladesh. It may be the result
of the increased intervention of
regulatory bodies on such
issues. In-house training
programs for employees is the
most disclosed HR item
followed by a statement on
number of employees,
compliance with health and
safety standards and disclosure
on recreational and cultural
facilities for employees but bank
have ignored significant HR
issues like staff accommodation,
ex-servicemen benefits and
providing financial assistance
for employee education. Among
the sample banks, only three
banks disclose employee
turnover information and per
employee statistics. The
disclosure pattern suggests that
banks are now concerned about
HR practices as the percentage
is increasing day by day. To
boost its image towards
The Authors are:
1
Chartered Accountant and
a Fellow Member of the
Institute of Chartered Accountants
of Bangladesh-ICAB
2
Lecturer
School of Business Administration
East Delta University, Chittagong
3
Lecturer
Department of Marketing
Faculty of Business Studies
Premier University, Chittagong
A
Human Resources (HR) Disclosure Practices
Evidence from Commercial Banks of Bangladesh
1
Imtiaz Alam FCA | 2
Fahmida Akhter | 3
Mohammad Rokibul Hossain

25. 24 JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant
also attempts to examine HC theme
formulated by Kansal and Singh (2012)
using HC index and find out the most
disclosed and least disclosed HC items.
Therefore, the study is mainly oriented to
answer the following Research Questions
(RQ): RQ1: what is the trend and nature
(narrative, quantitative and monetary) of
HR disclosures made by Commercial
banks in Bangladesh from 2014-2016?
RQ2: what are the contents of HR
disclosures made by commercial banks
for 2015-2016? RQ3: what are the most
disclosed and least disclosed HC
disclosures?
Theoretical Framework
Choi and Mueller (1992) argued that
Corporation discloses HR information
because employees, creditors,
customers, investors, government, and
society might demand such information.
Several theories such as Agency theory,
stakeholder, legitimacy, and resource
dependence theory discuss on why
corporation should voluntarily disclose
HR information (Kansal and Joshi, 2015).
A large number of researchers argued
that mechanisms of HR disclosures can
To conduct the study 2013 -2014;
2014-2015 and 2015-2016;
3 years are taken as a sample to
analyze the trends of HR disclosures
and to evaluate the contents of
HR disclosures made by sample
banks and to identify most disclosed
and least disclosed HR items
year 2015- 2016 is taken into
consideration.
disclosure has received considerable attention
during past decade and a half (Abeysekera and
Guthrie, 2004; Stewart, 1994) Human capital
disclosures serve its stakeholders in a number of
ways such as ensure organizational goal by
exploring opportunities and reducing threats
(Collins, 1988); improves communication channels
with employees on crucial issues (Craig and
Hussey, 1980) and meet the informational needs
of all its present and potential stakeholders
(Worland and Anderson, 1991) Thus ensure a
greater level of transparency across the
Human Resources (HR) Disclosure Practices
Evidence from Commercial Banks of Bangladesh
organizations. Transparency, relevance, and
reliability of accounting information are some of
the basic needs of stakeholders. They want to
invest in companies who possess sound financial
and non-financial disclosures (Kansal and Joshi,
2015) and tend to avoid companies who don’t
have such disclosure policies (Azim et al, 2009).
Human Capital disclosures are one of such
disclosures that play a vital role to improve
corporate image and obtain a competitive
advantage.
Considering the needs and importance of Human
Capital Disclosures, this study aims at
investigating the nature and trends of Human
Capital Disclosures made by commercial banks in
Bangladesh for the year 2014 – 2016. The study

26. enable corporation to attract
and retain employees
(Mouritsen et al., 2004), meet
shareholders expectation by
revealing HR capabilities
(Meer-Kooistra and Zijlstra,
2001), creates value (Wright
and Snell, 2005) and maximizes
shareholder value (Murthy and
Abeysekera, 2007). Guthrie
(2001) showed that HC
disclosures ensure effective
allocation of resources and may
create a bridge between skills
and abilities. Petty and Guthrie
(2000) concluded that “HC
reporting guides some firms to
mimic the “best practice” of
other firms”. Some researchers
argue that practices of HR
disclosures offer better forecast
of earnings as its value have
some influence over
professional accountants
(Flamholtz, 1976; Schwan, 1976).
Although a large number of
research had been conducted
on developed and developing
countries (Khan and Khan, 2010;
Huang et al., 2009; Ax and
Marton, 2008; Abeysekera and
Guthrie, 2004) there is a dearth
of research study conducted on
HR disclosure practices in the
context of Bangladesh. Bala and
Habib (1988) showed that
organizations reveal only
mandatory employee related
disclosures such employee
salaries, gratuity fund, festival
bonuses and similar information
as required by Bangladesh
Accounting Standard (BSA). In
near future, financial reporting
practices will be greatly
controlled by Securities &
Exchange Commission (BSEC)
in Bangladesh and it will compel
the social image and social
endeavor of corporation
(Greening and Turban, 2000;
Backhaus et al., 2002) and
investors intend to have
information so that they can
distinguish between good and
poor firms (Samudhram et al.,
2010).
Literature Review
In a corporation, one of the
most crucial strategic resources
is human resource (Bart, 2001;
Ballou et al., 2003; Fulmer et al.,
2003; Murthy and Abeysekera,
2007). It is regarded as a key
source of competitive
advantage and sometimes
termed as a value creator.
(Huang, 2013). Firms
performance are closely linked
to organizational capabilities
(Harrison, 1992; Low, 2000;
Seetharaman et al., 2002;
Skoog, 2003). A soundly
developed HR disclosure will
better be explained by
stakeholder theory. The theory
illustrates that an organization
will operate activities as per the
expectations of its relevant
stakeholders such as investors,
employees, customers,
government, society, and report
on these activities consequently
to the stakeholders. This theory
also suggests that organization
should be managed for the
betterment of its stakeholders.
Stakeholder and legitimacy
theory explains that
corporations should voluntarily
disclose HR information with a
view to meet the expectation of
present and potential
stakeholders (Huang et al., 2013;
Brown et al., 2005). For
instance, present employees
want to know how a
corporation will protect them
from risk and any sort of
uncertainty (Subbarao and
Zeghal, 1997). Potential
employees eager to know about
25JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant
ARTICLE

27. 26 JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant
Human Resources (HR) Disclosure Practices
Evidence from Commercial Banks of Bangladesh
Bangladesh. The Annual report
is taken to extract the data
because Annual report is the
most accepted and reliable
means of communication to all
its stakeholders. (Adams, 2004;
Gray et al., 1995a, b; Guthrie &
Parker, 1990; Raman, 2006;
Singh &Ahuja, 1983)
Selection of Period
To conduct the study 2013
-2014; 2014-2015 and 2015-2016;
3 years are taken as a sample to
analyze the trends of HR
disclosures and to evaluate the
contents of HR disclosures
made by sample banks and to
identify most disclosed and
least disclosed HR items year
2015- 2016 is taken into
consideration.
Data Analysis
To achieve the objectives of the
study, content analysis is
performed on the Annual report
as it was popularly used in
earlier disclosure based studies.
(Murthy, 2008; Murthy and
Abeysekera, 2008; Joshi et al.,
2010; Singh and Kansal, 2012).
According to Guthrie et al.
(2003) content analysis is a
standardized measurement
technique applied to metrically
defined units. Content analysis
of annual reports is a worldwide
accepted method for CSR and
IC research (Gray et al., 1995;
Guthrie and Parker, 1990).
Previous HR research mainly
used two methods of
measurement: the space
incidence method or the HR
disclosure index (Kansal and
Joshi, 2015). Space Incidence is
disclosed HR issues are
employee training, number of
employees, career development
and opportunities that firms
provide, and employee
recruitment policies. They
ended up with a conclusion that
increased intervention of
regulatory bodies causes the
upward trend of HR disclosure
practices. Absar et al., (2014)
concluded, “Bangladeshi banks
are practicing modern HC
practices such as Talent
Management, employer
branding, and human resource
information system”. Therefore,
to boost public image,
corporations should embrace
sound HR Disclosures practices.
Research Methodology
Sample Selection
The study is conducted on the
commercial banks in
Bangladesh. The study took 30
commercial banks enlisted in
Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) as
the sample that represents total
commercial banks in
all the public listed companies
to disclose necessary
information towards the
shareholders. Mazumder
(2005) found that Bangladeshi
firms started disclosing
voluntary information such as
social and environmental
information. Absar et al. (2014)
stated that Bangladesh
Securities and Exchange
Commission had taken some
initiatives in order to ensure
transparency and sound
corporate governance.
Moreover, Bangladesh Bank
instructed all the scheduled
banks in 2007 to include CSR
disclosures including HR. HR
disclosure has a significant
positive impact on business
performance (Absar et al., 2012;
Singh, 2004).
Sobhani et al. (2009) found that
out of 100 sample firms all of
them disclose at least one HR
issue. Khan and Khan (2010)
showed that HC disclosure
practices in Bangladesh is not
low as it is projected. They also
revealed that most frequently

28. 27JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant
2016 it becomes 55.5. This
analysis reveals that there is an
increasing trend of HR narrative
disclosure in Bangladesh.
Quantitative HR disclosure also
shows an increasing trend. In
2014, which is 22.97 and in
subsequent years it becomes
26.53 and 31 respectively. The
trend remains unchanged even
in the monetary category. In
2014, an average number of
disclosed sentences in the
monetary category is 9.83. It
shows a steep upward trend as
in 2015 and in 2016, the average
number is 11.77 and 13.57. So, In
this analysis, it is pertinent to
note that over the three years
examined, banking industry
demonstrated a significant
increase in the categories of HR
Disclosures. This finding is
consistent with Khan and Khan
(2010), where a content analysis
is conducted on leading
manufacturing and
service-oriented companies in
Bangladesh and witnessed an
increasing trend in HR
disclosure in Year the
2009-2010. At the end of 2007,
Government of Bangladesh
took some initiatives to enhance
social disclosures in annual
reports. For instance,
Bangladesh Bank encourages
commercial banks to disclose
social information as a part of
management efficiency. To
encourage social disclosure,
National Board of Revenue
offers tax incentives and the
result is evident. Banks are now
more concerned to disclose
more and more on their human
resource practices (Khan et al.,
2009; Khan, 2010).
item in the HR Disclosure index
for the year 2015-2016, where
Rp is a percentage of
companies reporting specific
items of HR.
After having value of Rp, the
third research objective can be
met by showing five most
disclosed and five least
disclosed HR items.
Analysis & Findings
Longitudinal Analysis (2014–
2016) of HR Disclosures
Table 1 depicts an average
number of disclosed sentences
related to HR for a period of 3
years. In 2014, the average
number of narrative sentences
is 37.66, in 2015 it is 45.3 and in
a method where a single
sentence is taken as a unit of
analysis. To meet the first
objective, Space Incidence
method is used to obtain
disclosed sentences related to
HR. These sentences further
categorized into the narrative,
quantitative and monetary
depending on the nature of the
disclosure. Then, the average
number of disclosed sentences
for each category is calculated
for the sample years to evaluate
the trends of HR disclosure and
to ascertain whether there is an
upward or downward trend of
disclosing HR issues among the
banks. For the second research
objective, the study examines a
list of items under HR theme
formulated by Kansal and Singh
(2012) and used in (Kansal and
Joshi, 2015) using HR Index
method.
The disclosure index will be
measured in terms of how many
companies reported a particular
ARTICLE
Number of companies
disclosing ith item
100Rp
= XTotal number of companies
in the sample (n), ie:30

29. 28 JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant
Human Resources (HR) Disclosure Practices
Evidence from Commercial Banks of Bangladesh
Item-wise (content) analysis of HR disclosures, 2015-2016
The item-wise disclosures of HR are calculated and summarized in table II and III
Table II : Contents of HR Disclosures for the Year 2015-2016
Items in HR index
Rp
(No)
Rp
%
Employee health and safety
1. 1.Statements regarding the reduction of pollutants, irritants, hazards, injuries 7 23%
2. 2.Promoting employee safety and physical or mental health 22 73%
3. 3.Compliance with health and safety standards and regulations 23 77%
4. 4.Receiving a safety award 10 33%
5. 5.Establishing a safety department/committee/safety policy 8 27%
6. 6.Providing low-cost health care for employees 18 60%
Employment of minorities or women
7. 7.Disclosing percentage or number of minority and/or in the various managerial levels the
workforce
11 37%
8. 8.Employment of differently abled ex-servicemen 0 0
Employee training
9. 9.Training employees through the in-house program 27 90%
10. 10.Giving financial assistance to employees in educational institutes or continuing education
courses
0 0
11. 11.Establishment of training centers 3 10%
Employee assistance/benefits
12. 12.Staff accommodation 0 0
13. 13.Providing recreational, cultural activities/facilities 23 77%
14. 14.Improvements to the general working conditions – both in the factories and for the office staff 13 43%
15. 15.Awards are given for motivation of employees 13 43%
16. 16.Stock option plans for the employees or employee share purchase schemes 5 17%
17. 17.Retirement benefits 17 57%
18. 18.Subsidised canteen 18 60%
19. 19.Subsidised transport 4 13%
20. 20.Feedback from employees 5 17%
21. 21.Employee loan facilities 24 80%
22. 22.Employee welfare fund 8 27%
23. 23.Information about support for daycare, maternity and paternity leave 21 70%
24. 24.Holiday benefits 12 40%
Employee others
25. 25.Disclosing percentage or number of women employees in the workforce and/or in the various
managerial levels
15 50%
26. 26.Providing the number of employees in the company and/or at each branch/ subsidiary 24 80%
27. 27.Providing information on the company/management’s relationships with the employees in an
effort to improve job satisfaction and employee motivation, e.g. Strikes/statements regard
cordial relations
12 40%
28. 28.Providing per employee statistics, e.g. assets per employee and sales per employee 2 7%
29. 29.Information and statistics on employee turnover 3 10%
30. 30.Winning an award for being a good employer 19 63%
Table: I: Trend of HR Disclosure
Year Narrative Quantitative Monetary
2014 37.67 22.97 9.83
2015 45.30 26.53 11.77
2016 55.53 31.00 13.57

30. 29JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant
information and per employee
statistics e.g. assets per
employee and sales per
employee. Out of 30 sample
commercial banks only 4 banks
(13%) disclose information
regarding subsidized transport
facilities for employees, 3 banks
(10%) disclose information
regarding employee turnover
and per employee statistics, e.g.
assets per employee and sales
per employee, is disclosed only
by 2 banks (7%). All of the 30
sample banks ignored the
significance of HR issues like
financial assistance for
employee education and staff
accommodation. None of the 30
sample banks have made these
disclosures. Commercial banks
of Bangladesh should practice
HR properly to strengthen
exposures, which will promote
their image and accountability
towards stakeholders.
and cultural activities that they
facilitate these kinds of
engagement activities and also
they are compliant with health
and safety standards. Although
they did not extensively
disclose information on
transport facilities for
employees, employee turnover
The results depict that the
disclosure practices made by
Bangladeshi commercial banks
in relation to HR items are
satisfactory. Taking into
accounts all items, In-house
training programs is the most
disclosed HR information (90%
of companies disclosed this
information. Therefore, it
becomes evident that
commercial banks of
Bangladesh a significant
amount of human resources
trained through the in-house
program to be familiar with
work-related skills. This finding
is consistent with Khan and
Khan (2010). Kansal and Joshi
(2015) also found that In-house
training is the most favored way
of disclosing HR information.
80% of companies disclose
information regarding number
of employees allocated to their
own companies, and/or its
branches or subsidiaries and
also provide loan facility for
their employees. 77% of banks
stated regarding recreational
ARTICLE
Table III: Most disclosed and least disclosed HR contents
Five most disclosed contents Rp%
Training employees through the in-house program 90%
Allocating the number of employees in the company 80%
Employee loan facilities 80%
Compliance with health and safety standards and regulations 77%
Providing recreational, cultural and activities/facilities 77%
Five least disclosed contents Rp%
Providing per employee statistics, e.g. assets per
employee and sales per employee
7%
Staff accommodation 0%
Retirement benefits 0%
Employment of abled difference 0%
Giving financial assistance to employees in educational
institutes or Continuing Education courses
0%

31. 30 JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant
Human Resources (HR) Disclosure Practices
Evidence from Commercial Banks of Bangladesh
per employee statistics, e.g.
assets per employee and sales
per employee, and three banks
disclose Information and
statistics on employee turnover.
None of the sample banks
disclose information like staff
accommodation, retirement
benefits and giving financial
assistance for continuing
education course. Kansal and
Joshi (2015) in context of India
found that In-house training
program is the most disclosed
HR content. In the research
work, other highly disclosed HR
issues are receiving safety
awards, statements regarding
congenial atmosphere of firm,
alongside Indian firms are highly
reluctant to disclose significant
HR issues like employee welfare
fund. The present study also
supports the findings of Khan
and Khan (2010) who stated the
most disclosed HR information
are In-house training for
employees, employee numbers,
career opportunities provided
by the employer and
recruitment policies. But the HR
Disclosures are not sufficient in
respect to per employee
statistics, e.g. assets per
employee and sales per
employee, employee skill and
competence profiles, etc. Khan
and Khan (2010) also added
that none of the sample banks
disclose information on
employee incentive programs,
HC statistics, employee values,
etc.
In light of the findings, the study
has a potential number of
implications. To attract and
retain employees in the banking
industry, the government may
Conclusion and
Managerial Implication
The study used quantitative
analysis to examine the trends
and nature of HR Disclosure
practices of 30 commercial
banks in Bangladesh over a
period of three years
(2014-2016) and the study
encompasses on a detailed
analysis of HR disclosures for
the year 2015-2016. The analysis
shows positive trends of HR
disclosure practices in
Bangladesh. It is encouraging
that the trend of HR disclosure
practices is increasing at a
decent rate. This finding is
consistent with Khan and Khan
(2010) who revealed that trend
of HR disclosure practices is not
low as it is forecasted. Kansal
and Joshi (2015) witnessed low
HR disclosure practices in India
and compared to quantitative
and monetary disclosures, there
is an increasing trend of
narrative disclosures in India.
Thus it is concluded comparing
with neighboring Country India,
Bangladesh Banking Industry
maintains a sound Human
Resource Disclosures in Annual
Reports. The study also aims at
evaluating a list of HR items
formulated by Kansal and Joshi
(2015) using HR Disclosure
Index method. The analysis
shows that employees in-house
training program is the most
favored HR disclosure item,
followed by allocating number
of employees in a company,
along with provision of loan to
employees and compliance with
health and safety standards and
regulations. Out of sample
banks, only two banks disclose
limit their intervention to the
increased number of HR
disclosures. This study also
identifies some crucial concepts
where managers should focus
more on HR disclosures such as
employee statistics, retirement
benefits, etc. Also, HR
disclosures may encourage
employees to enhance
productivity, where HR
managers should play a pivotal
role to disclose more on this
crucial issue.
Scope for Further
Research
Although this study has given
some useful insight, it is not free
from limitations. These
limitations, however, could
provide a forward move for
future research. First, this
analysis is based on annual
reports of thirty commercial
banks in Bangladesh over three
consecutive years. The findings
could be more accurately
generalized if a longitudinal
analysis of ten to fifteen years
could be taken as a
consideration. Such analysis
across the different industry
may also be taken into
consideration. Multinational
Banks such as HSBC
Bangladesh, Standard
Chartered Bank might practice
sound HR disclosures, but these
banks are not listed in DSE;
therefore, multinational banks
are excluded from the study.
Further research may be
conducted including the
multinational banks for
generalizability of the findings.
Transnational analysis can be a
new scope for research in this

32. 31JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant
ARTICLE
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527-546.
Kansal, M., & Joshi, M. (2015).
Reporting human resources in
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33. 32 JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant
Introduction
The economic condition of a
country is measured by the
living standard of the people of
that country. In recent year, the
Per Capita Income of the people
of our country has increased to
1610 USD (BBS, 2016 - 2017).
The participation of both male
and female has helped us to
achieve this success. Like other
sectors, banking sector is also
vital for the development of a
country where a huge number
of female employees are
engaged with active
participation
The participation of women in
different levels of the
organization is not up to the
expectation. As per the
editorial, the New Age (2015),
percentage of female staff in
the banking sector decreased
significantly in 2014 compared
with that of 2013 as most of the
banks are reluctant to recruit
them, said officials of
Bangladesh Bank. According to
latest Bangladesh Bank data,
the entry-level female staff
decreased to 13.70% of the total
newly-recruited staff in 2014
from 16.88% in 2013. The
mid-level female staff in the
banking sector decreased to
14.18% in 2014 from 16.66% in
2013 while the female
participation in the senior
management of the banks
declined to 7.46% from 10.91%.
The number of female staff,
aged between 30 years and 50
years, decreased to 12.98% in
2014 from 15.64% in 2013 while
the woman staff aged over 50
years declined to 6.91% from
bstract
The participation of
women in different job fields in
our country is inevitable for the
economic development
because half of the population
of our country is women and
most of them are young and
educated. Moreover, in recent
years, private banking sector
has become successful to grab
the attention of the graduates.
Although a good number of
women are working in different
private banks, it has been seen
that a few of them can reach
their expected level of career.
And there are lots of factors
working behind this. This study
has been conducted aiming at
measuring the impact of various
factors of glass ceiling which
impede women career
development. Anderson (1996)
formula has been used to
determine the sample size of
the respondents from five
purposively selected private
commercial banks in Dhaka City.
A structured questionnaire
(Reliability test: Cronbach's
Alpha .801) was sent to the
respondents and the study
found that long working hours,
concern for children, coworkers’
appreciation in workplace,
negativity in competitiveness of
women, years of experience,
work-related competencies
have impact on women career
development. The study ended
with some recommendations,
which will help the decision
makers for further progress.
Keywords: Glass Ceiling (GC),
Women Career Development,
Private Commercial Banks
A
Factors Determining Glass Ceiling
That Influences Women Career Development
A Study On Selected Private Commercial Banks in Dhaka City
1
Sheikh Emran Shirage | 2
Md. Shawfiqul Islam | 3
K.A.M. Rifat Hasan
The Authors are:
1
Lecturer
Department of Management Studies
Jagannath University
2
Lecturer
Department of Management Studies
Jagannath University
3
Lecturer
Department of Management Studies
Jagannath University

34. Civil Service). These perceptions were:
(a) negative attitudes toward women by
male colleagues, (b) hesitation of
superiors about the capabilities of
women officers, (c) superiority
complexes of male colleagues, (d)
intention of men to treat women in a
gender-biased fashion, (e) belief in
traditional thought that men are more
efficient than women, and (f)
non-cooperation of male colleagues.
These perceptions induce working
women to prefer their families to career
advancement.
Career development is the lifelong
process of managing, learning, work,
leisure, and transitions in order to move
toward a personally determined and
evolving preferred future. As Mathis and
Jackson (2000) state career
development helps organizations to
magnetize and hold effective and
efficient employees. Similarly, this
facilitates the employees to attain their
individual career goals and objectives. A
combined effort of the organizations,
employees, their families and wider
society is crucial for successful career
development. Due to the absence of any
of these efforts, both men and women
The economic condition of a country
is measured by the living standard of
the people of that country. In recent
year, the Per Capita Income of the
people of our country has increased
to 1610 USD (BBS, 2016-2017).
The participation of both male and
female has helped us to achieve
this success.
9.61%. The female participation in the board of
directors of the banks also decreased in the
period as the ratio stood at 11.27% against 13.73%
in 2013. That’s why here comes to our mind the
concept of ‘Glass Ceiling’.
In general, glass ceiling (GC) refers to the invisible
barriers that restraint female employees from
getting promoted into the upper positions in an
organization though they are capable enough to
handle the position. Cotter et al. (2001) have
identified four criteria creating GC scenario inside
an organization. According to their statement, a
GC inequality stands for grender or racial
differences not described by other job-relevant
characteristics of the employees. They also
mentioned that the gender or racial difference is
greater at higher levels of an outcome than at
lower levels of an outcome. Here, GC inequality
symbolizes the disparity that tends to increase
over courses of career. Generally, women are
assumed to have larger responsibilities than men
do. Consequently, women are avoided by their
employers to promote for the higher positions
because women as a group are assumed to be
absent from work more often than men due to
childbearing and childcare responsibilities
(Rosenfeld et al., 1998).
A survey conducted by UNDP in 1993 identified
six perceptions of unequal treatment to women in
the administrative cadre of the BCS (Bangladesh
33JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant
ARTICLE

35. 3. Whether organizational
factors (such as
–opportunities for career
advancement, attitude of
management towards
having female superiors and
having competencies in
women, management’s
reluctance in assigning
females in challenging
tasks) are influencing the
career development of
women employees. and
4. Whether cultural factors
(such as–ethnicity and
religious issues)
representing GC are
influencing the career
development of women
employees.
Objectives of the Study
It is commonly believed that
women employees get less
chance for career advancement
than men employees. The study
is conducted to find out the
following objectives:
1. To find out the factors
determining GC influencing
the career development of
women working in private
commercial banks of Dhaka
city;
2. To measure the impact of
GC on career development
of female employees of
private commercial banks
of Dhaka city; and
3. To recommend solutions for
overcoming the barriers
standing in the way of
women career development.
Dhaka city confronting
obstacles in case of advancing
their career due to GC. For the
attainment of the purpose
following things are required to
be analyzed:
1. Whether individual factors
(such as - years of
experience, academic
excellence, work related
c o m p e t e n c i e s )
representing GC are
influencing the career
development of women
employees working in
private commercial banks in
Dhaka city.
2. Whether family factors
(such as – life partner’s
support, concern about
children, family size) are
influencing the career
development of women
employees.
may confront many challenges
as they advance through
careers. Reasons for difficulties
in career opportunities for
women have been identified by
various researchers over time,
since the existence of GC in the
organizations has obtained
considerable attention in recent
years.
Statement of the
Problem
Although various studies have
been conducted on GC in
different sectors, but a very little
attention has been paid by
researchers on banking
industry, especially on women
employees working in different
private commercial banks in
Dhaka city. The purpose of the
study is to realize whether the
women employees working in
private commercial banks in
34 JANUARY - MARCH 2018 | The Bangladesh Accountant
Factors Determining Glass Ceiling That Influences Women Career Development
A Study On Selected Private Commercial Banks in Dhaka City