Internal control systems in the agricultural banking sector of Bangladesh

Abstract

The work described in this thesis details the Internal Control Systems in the Agricultural Banking Sector of Bangladesh. Some works had been reported previously on the similar topic, but any work on the same topic of the present study has not been studied to date. This study gave effort to improve the Internal Control System of Bangladesh Krishi Bank (BKB). This research work was trying to relate farmers’ access to institutional finance. During this study data was collected from two sources, namely, from the primary source and the secondary source. For the primary source of data, this study developed two types of questionnaires. Sample size for the primary source of data was 135. This research is mainly based on primary data with a structured questionnaires consisting of Part-I and Part-II. Part-I has two demographic questions and 10 statements for Yes or No option related to audit process, audit committee, Board of Directors and top managements. Part- II has 16 questions related to the information of branch including the Internal Control System of banking and another 15 questions have only closed ended options designed in a Five point Likert scale to measure Internal Control System of branch. This study also tried to point out the organizational overview of the Bangladesh Krishi Bank to link up the performance of the internal control system. A comparative analysis of credit performance, loan disbursement etc of BKB to other agricultural banking and non banking financial institutes were performed. Besides, the Internal Control Systems and its effectiveness have been evaluated. The evaluation of the scenario of the banking sector revealed the exploitation mechanism of farmers and its impact on the agricultural sector and the economy. This study is also to determine the auditor’s responsibility in the agricultural banking sector in Bangladesh. In fact, the key factor of enhancing credibility of the financial report is essential. Auditors’ responsibility is to judge the financial statements providing through the management. In recent years banking sector corruption scandals were happened, so there is strong demand that audits should be standard as well as reliable. It is also expected that auditorsshould detect fraud. The auditors view their role as bringing credibility to financial statements, but because of limitation they cannot detect all kinds of fraud. But most of the auditors thought their job to prepare the financial statements and, on the other hand, detection of fraud is the responsibility of the management. On other hand, Management’s opinion regarding detection of fraud is the task of auditors. The findings of this study indicate that there are significant differences between auditors and bankers opinion in areas of detecting fraud and illegal acts. In this study, the authors came to conclusion that the bankers have reasonableness expectation than the auditors. Based on the findings, it is suggested for future research on issues that could improve the usefulness of the unqualified auditor’s report and the overall transparency of the financial reporting process. Finally, the present study concluded with recommendations to improve the Internal Control Systems of the agricultural banking sector to avoid the exploitation of the farmers for the development of the agricultural sector as well as the economy of Bangladesh.