With the election to be completed by August 20, the leaders of some associations and chambers--that many consider as fake--are now very prominent in the federation building or around like previous years. Sources said the aim of these leaders is to remain available for bidding votes to intending candidates.

Sources also alleged that there is more than one loan defaulter on the FBCCI board of directors involved with this "vote business".

A few loan defaulters are even planning to contest the next election since loan defaulting does not restrict or disqualify one for contesting although it does so in case of national election or those of other bodies, the sources added.

Ahead of the election these "fake" associations and chambers reportedly take money from the intending candidates for the FBCCI office or the offices of president or vice-president of the FBCCI board.

They are also seen negotiating the price of each vote from their associations and chambers, FBCCI insiders said, adding that all this money goes to individual member voters and sometimes part of it goes to their agents for a better bargain.

According to the FBCCI constitution, each A Class chamber has six voters and B Class chamber has four voters while each A Class association has five voters and B Class association three voters.

FBCCI sources said out of 209 associations and 66 chambers of commerce, at least 150 associations are either "pocket" associations or associations having no real business or members. They hardly maintain any permanent office or record of their activities as per trade organisation ordinance and rules.

More than 75 percent associations have never submitted reports of their annual general meetings and financial statements and other relevant documents to the commerce ministry. The ministry however neither penalised these associations nor cancelled their trade licences or memberships.

Besides, 90 percent associations do not have any activity or branch or membership whatsoever outside the capital although they are supposed to be a countrywide association, said FBCCI sources.

According to the concerned quarters, there are a few "influential" members who directly or indirectly own dozens of associations and maintain a vote bank to sell to the candidates at an opportune moment.

Some of these people, who do not have any business at all, bank on a few trade licences and selling votes during the election.

There are some who regularly attend the FBCCI office from morning to evening almost throughout the year and try to utilise any available opportunity in the federation, including exporting manpower in the name of trade delegation, the sources said.

In the late 1980s, the FBCCI took a planeload of "trade delegation" to Japan and left behind some 150 of them for a payment of Tk 1 lakh or more per head. Following this incident, Japan Chamber of Commerce and its authorities concerned blacklisted the FBCCI.

FBCCI insiders said the commerce ministry is quite interested to give licences to any association without verifying their existence or the necessity of such association or organisation.

According to the Trade Organisation Ordinance, there can be only one trade body either in the manufacturing sector or in trade services. For a product, there cannot be more than one association in a particular sector of trade or industry. In reality, however, there are dozens of associations in the same trade and industry and some of them are not even permitted as per the Trade Organisation Ordinance 1960.

Several chambers are also reportedly involved in the illegal vote business during the election.

A few district chambers of commerce do not even have executive bodies, permanent offices and staff. They often have had one person as the president till date since their formation although it goes against the trade organisation rules. These chamber "presidents" are in most cases based in Dhaka, sources said.

But the commerce ministry has never taken any action to change this situation although it has full authority to ask every organisation to comply with the trade organisation rules and cancel their licences if they fail.

Top business leaders said the ministry should take immediate steps against these "fake" associations and chambers.

They also asked the authorities concerned not to allow loan defaulters to contest the FBCCI election, saying their presence in the board will not only discourage honest business but also encourage others to default on loans.

In the last week of April, the name of FBCCI Vice-President Mohammad Ali came to spotlight when the state-owned Sonali Bank waived Tk 129 crore interest on loans taken by him.

According to sources, Ali has Tk 165 crore outstanding loans with Sonali Bank taken against Dhaka Vegetable Oil Industries Ltd, of which he is both the chairman and managing director.

He took the loans showing edible oil stock at Dhaka Vegetable Oil Industries plant but Sonali Bank officials later found that the containers were filled with water. The bank has been treating the loans as bad loans since 1995.

Ali also took Tk 56 crore loan from Sonali Bank against Deshma Shoe Industries, which is also a defaulter. Banking sources said Ali has also defaulted loans of Tk 52 crore with Oriental Bank and Tk 33 crore with the IFIC bank.

Major (retd) Jasimuddin, president of Bangladesh Cold Storage Association, in a written statement recently urged the commerce adviser to prevent loan defaulters from contesting the FBCCI election.

He also asked the government to remove the loan defaulters from the existing executive body of the FBCCI.

The competence of the federation president should be of the highest order so that no question can be raised about his or her integrity, said Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) President Hossain Khaled. The DCCI does not allow any loan defaulter to be part of its executive body, even to be a member of the chamber.

Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association President Anwar-ul Alam Chowdhury Parvez also said it should be the prime criterion for an FBCCI leader that there would be no negative discussion against the leadership.