Bank employees plan 2-day strike in July
BANGALORE, MAY 15:
About 10 lakh bank employees and officers plan to go on a two-day all-India strike in July this year. The United Forum of Bank Unions has decided to observe a two-day all-India strike during the monsoon session of Parliament in July, said Mr G.D. Nadaf, Convenor, UFBU, in a press release.
The forum has also decided to observe May 21 as ‘All-India Protest Day' against unilateral directions from the Government of India on bilateral issues and the attack on hard-earned trade union rights.
There will be centralised demonstrations at all State capitals and a rally before Parliament in New Delhi to mark the protest, added the release.
The protest will be against issues such as the Banking Law (Amendments) Bill and other reform measures, closure of rural branches, increased outsourcing of jobs, attacks on trade union rights, and the government's unilateral directions on bilateral issues.
The forum will also demand resolution of the ninth bipartite wage settlement pending with the Indian Banks' Association and the Government, and early settlement of the tenth bipartite settlement.
anju@thehindu.co.in
Promotion policy for public sector banks tweaked to fill vacancies
MUMBAI, MAY 14:
The Finance Ministry, as a ‘one time measure,' has tweaked the promotion policy in public sector banks for 2012-13. The move comes as the banks are staring at superannuation in large numbers in the next couple of years.
Failure to fill vacancies at key leadership positions of branch heads and regional heads could jeopardise business growth.
In view of the difficulties being experienced by these banks regarding non-availability of officers in the ‘zone of consideration,' annual performance appraisal report marks and cut-off date for eligibility for promotions, the Ministry has ‘relaxed' the promotion criteria.
The Ministry, in a communication, said the zone of consideration for promotion should be generally three times the number of anticipated vacancies. However, in case these many officers are not available, the zone of consideration could be at least two times the number of likely vacancies.
The board of directors of these banks can further relax the minimum eligibility criteria in the length of service by up to six months over and above the one year already provided in the guidelines issued in March.
GOVT INTERFERING
According to Mr S. Nagarajan, General Secretary, All Indian Bank Officers' Association, by issuing ad hoc promotion guidelines the Ministry is interfering with the autonomy of the banks.
“The relaxation in the minimum eligibility criteria will lead to officers with inadequate experience heading branches. This could have repercussions for banks business,” he said.
A senior bank official said the earlier zone of consideration for promotion of three times the number of anticipated vacancies would have ensured that competent officers got an opportunity to rise up the ladder.
The Ministry said officers against whom disciplinary proceedings are in process would be considered for promotion and the recommendations in respect of such officers would be kept in a sealed cover.
The requirement of minimum 75 per cent marks in the appraisal report in each year under consideration would be relaxed to the extent of 60 per cent for only those grades where passing of an examination by the Institute for Banking Personnel Selection is mandatory for promotion.
A retired bank officer said moving the goalposts from time to time when it comes to promotions is demoralising for officers. Meanwhile, the Ministry said the process for promotion for vacancies during the year must be completed before June of that year.
All transfer orders should be issued by June every year. However, transfer on promotion can be done after June as and when these become due.
The Ministry said, “Any transfer of officers after June, even on administrative exigencies, except on promotion, would require prior approval of board of directors.”
Taking into account the academic session and other relevant factors, the Ministry said the process of regular transfer of officers should be completed at the beginning of the year so that the staff are not put to undue inconvenience.
11 comments:
Whimsical promotion, whimsical transfer and posting are the root cause of all types of irregularities, deficiencies, corruption, and mal-administration in the society.
As long as we are unable to provide a reasoning based transfer and merit based promotion and as long as the wrong doers are not punished by court in the quickest timeframe we cannot imagine of stopping corrupt judges sitting at top post.
When most of the ministers in the government, most of the MPs and most of the MLAs at state level are corrupt how can they inculcate good practices among IAS officers, judges and other functional heads?
I have experienced when the top in any office or in the government is weak and corrupt, the bottom-line cannot be expected to remain honest and efficient.
Old proverb “survival for the fittest” no more holds good. Now a day’s survival is possible only for the person who is well versed in flattery to bosses, who can earn money through ill methods and share the same with his bosses. As such it is not astonishing that a higher corrupt chief justice of a high court is elevated to justice of Supreme Court.
The bitter truth is that there is no fool proof method of providing perfectly merit based promotion or seniority based promotion in any office. None of the promotion processes can ensure justice to all, justice to the organization and discomfort to none as long as the person responsible for carrying out the promotion process is dishonest and corrupt.
I have been advocating abolishing Interview panel in all promotion processes in all departments and all organizations because Interview is such a test where the candidate’s career can be easily spoiled by Interviewers. During interview, key role is played by elements like bribe, gift, sources, god fathers, flattery when Interviewer raises questions before the candidate and finally the marks is actually given by the interviewer. There is hardly any place for merit in the mind of Interview panel and this why whimsical promotions takes place and a reign of injustice spreads like cancer and is followed by inefficiency, frustration, depression and what not. Interview is a platform to reject talented worker and nothing else. As long as human mind is polluted, greedy and malicious we should not expect dignified position for good workers and hence it is always desirable to have time bound promotion for all and time bound punishment or demotion for non performer.
Last but not the least; our courts cannot deliver justice in decades. Justice delayed is justice denied. And when there is no hope of justice even from court, aggrieved person in promotion process is left with no alternative other than digesting the poison of injustice. It is an open secret in our society that victim of all types are in general afraid of lodging complain in any police department against any type of criminal.
This is bank Where whims and fancies prevail
1. Where some officers are not given promotion even after satisfactory performance for more than a decade or two or even three whereas some officers are given two or three or even four promotions in one decade, not because of his excellence in performance but because of his liasoning with big executive or because of his ability to please his boss through extending gifts in cash or in kind
2. Where some officers have been continuously working in rural areas whereas some others have not even seen rural area but they are given formal cream rural posting near to town just to promote them to higher scale.
3. Where interviewer has the capacity to make or mar career of any officer as per his sweat will in the promotion process. There is no scope of Appeal which even all courts provide in their judgments.
4. Where no opportunity is given to fail candidate to appeal and prove his case and which ultimately make interviewer as whimsical and dictator.
5. Where even non performing officers are promoted to higher scale by Interviewer in promotion process and performing officers are rejected only because they failed to serve personally their bosses
6. Where officers are promoted but not found suitable for posting at branches of equal rank and this is why scale II officers have been working in scale III branches whereas on the contrary promoted scale III officers are given scale II or scale I ranch because he is not fit for running a big branch of equal rank.
7. Where transfer policy is for only name sake and this is why some officers are whimsically transferred to remotest state frequently even without promotion whereas some other blue eyed officers have been continuously working in one region on in one state for two or three decades continuously either due to fear of state union lobby or to avoid IR problem in that particular state or as per whims of executives.
8. Where neither promotion policy is truly respected nor transfer policy is given due value and it is only the whims and fancies of top executives sitting at the responsible posts which is respected.
9. Where loan accounts are standard for years and years even if there is no repayment and it is the art of officer how much bad account he can conceal to become star performer and get quick promotion.
10. Where loans are disbursed to bad person causing loss to bank but officers disbursing such bad loan become star performer.
11. Where role of WWW is dominant to get rid of whimsical transfer and posting and get whimsical promotion. It is not that merit is ignored cent per cent, but it is also a bitter truth that top executives tactfully accommodate hundreds of bad officers in good position and on the contrary they have shunted hundreds of good officers in bad areas, remotest area without promotion.
12. Inauguration of Branches, ATMs and any other function or offices by Higher Bosses and Ministers must be stopped immediately because they give rise to corrupt practices and it would not be an exaggeration if I say that I became victim of the same because I did not gift gold chain to Inaugurating Executive .
13. Government is silent spectator or all excesses and irregularities in the bank because of point Number 12. They rise only when Satyam like exposure takes place.
14. In banks even union and association of award staff or officers are said to be working in collusion with management representative. They are alleged to think more for their self interest than employees and in disguise of protecting the interest of employees they actually flatter management bosses.
15. Union and Association of staff stress on demand related to retired employees and give less importance to existing employees and this is why 12 hour working in banks has become accepted culture.
Arbitrary promotion and whimsical transfer is the root cause of rampant corruption and culture of flattery to superiors. As long as we are unable to provide a reasoning based transfer and merit based promotion and as long as the wrong doers are not punished by either head of the department or by the courts we cannot imagine of stopping corrupt practices prevailing in the system and spreading like cancer in the society.
When Head of any department or office is corrupt, or when any minister in the government is corrupt it will be foolish to imagine of healthy culture down the line. It is very difficult to survive with dignity when the boss is corrupt and when boss likes flattery. Only when boss loves real performance, employees feel delighted in working sincerely.
When real performers are awarded, there will be positive motivation. On the contrary if corrupt is promoted and given good posting, it is but natural that people will be tempted to toe the line of boss even if it is wrong and unethical and against the interest of the organization.
Old proverb “survival for the fittest” no more holds good. Now a day’s survival is possible only for the person who is well versed in flattery to bosses, who can earn money through ill methods and share the same with his bosses.
The bitter truth is that there is no foolproof method of providing perfectly merit-based promotion or seniority based promotion in any office. None of the promotion processes can ensure justice to all, justice to the organization and discomfort to none as long as the person responsible for carrying out the promotion process is dishonest and corrupt. When protectors become destructors, damage to society cannot be stopped,
One easy way to stop whimsical transfer and arbitrary promotion is to maintain transparency and abolish the requirement of passing through Interview for existing employees for getting promotion. Interview is such a test where Interviewers can easily spoil the candidate’s career.
During interview, key role is played by elements like bribe, gift, sources, godfathers, and flattery possessed by employee whose performance is assessed during interview. When Interviewer desires to promote an employee he raises easy questions or do not raise any question and give higher marks and on the contrary he may raises toughest and irrelevant questions before the candidate to reject him in the promotion process.
The interviewer as per his whims and fancies gives marks for interview and unfortunately there is no method to penalize such malicious interviewers or the interview team made of birds of the same feather. There is hardly any place for merit in the mind of Interview panel and this why whimsical promotions take place and a reign of injustice and that of corruption spreads like epidemic and is followed by inefficiency, frustration, depression and what not.
Last but not the least; our courts cannot deliver justice in decades. This eliminates the fear from the minds of interviewer and the aggrieved employee is constrained to bear with the rejection in promotion process. Justice delayed is justice denied. And when there is no hope of justice even from court, aggrieved person in promotion process is left with no alternative other than digesting the poison of injustice. It is an open secret in our society that victim is afraid of lodging complain in police department against any type of criminal. Not to speak of promotions, management can torture an employee by using his power of transfer and posting an employee in the name of exigencies as per his sweet will.
When a bank or any government office is unable to promote an employee due to shortage of vacancies in upper cadre , bank should not stagnate the employee only because he has reached the last stage of his scale .This is a fundamental question concerning all employees who are not getting annual increment only because he could not get promotion in time due to management’s fault or due to corrupt interview panel who promote an employee not on the basis of performance but on the basis of gift or money he receives from the employee. It is ironical that in government offices, departments, insurance companies and banks seniors are getting lesser increment whereas in private sectors seniors are worshipped like owners, promoters and savers of the firm. This is why private sector flourishes in real worth whereas public sector officers are facing continuous erosion in value.
In this age of flattery there is no respect for policy or performance. An officer is promoted only when he or she has a God father in upper echelon or he has pleased his boss with huge gifts in cash or in kind or bought and motivated the top executive who is a member of Interview panel. HRD policies in bank promote chamcha culture, RBI and Ministry of Finance or Banking Division all irrigates and promotes such culture. The more one is corrupt, the more he is flatterer and the higher is he posted. This is why cancer of corruption is growing unabated and even vulnerable department like defense is sick of this disease.
There are many EDs and CMDs of banks and government departments whose history is full of instances of indulging in corruption. If CBI conducts an honest inquiry in the credit decision taken by top executives, loan waived by them, and present status of loan sanctioned by them directly or indirectly trough his team of chamchas, bad advances hidden by them, personal assets accumulated by them, I think eight out of ten top executives will be found suitable for severe punishment and not fit for even junior posts.
Unfortunately in our country even authorities entrusted with duty of unearthing corrupt practices and bringing corrupt persons to justice are themselves indulged in corruption to a great extent. Then who will bell the cat is a million dollar question. So called clean and honest PM like Manmohan Singh expresses his helplessness on the front of corruption, naxalism and terrorism very wisely and boldly.
It is due to such wrong policies perpetuated by corrupt and greedy executives that even an officer like Madhuri Gupta could hold an important, sensitive and vulnerable post for more tan 30 years, get whimsical posting and promotions for such a long period inspite of the fact that she indulged in anti-national activities and worked as an agent of Pakistan silently.
Mrs. Rabri Devi, wife of Lalu Yadav could became Chief Minister of Bihar not because she was an able administrator, experienced politician or a knowledgeable lady , but because flatters of Lalu Yadav had vested interest to support her.
Similarly Mr. Lalu Yadav could get the post of Railway Minister despite his involvement in thousand crore Chara Ghotala because ruling government led by UPA and Congress party wanted to survive with his support.
Mr. Ratore could get promotions after promotions and best posting despite Ruchika’s case because of his god liasoning with his bosses and because he could shut the mouth and eyes of his bosses by keeping them happy through gifts in cash and kind.
Raju in Satyam computers could perpetuate fraud in thousands of crores of rupees for years together and win even the award of best corporate governance because he was surrounded by his greedy flatterers, greedy team of Chartered Accountants and corrupt ministers.
Madhu Koda Ex Chief Minister of Jharkhand and Reddy brothers in Andhra Pradesh could commit fraud with the government treasury in billion of rupees because he or they got the support of flatter team of IAS, IPS and other monitoring officers.Mayawati, Mulayam, Lalu like CM reshuffle senior officers like playing cards .Only a team of officers who are yes-men ,flatterer and ready to support and executive all ill motivated work ordered by ministers of the government can only survive and flourish in his or her career. This is the fate of good officers in all banks. There are several Raju in all banks who makes the balance sheet shining and who manage Chartered Accountants at various levels, officers working in Banking division, ministry of finance, top bureaucrats, top politicians all over the country.
In brief in our country even a donkey is posted on top post he can survive and get continuous elevation in career provided he or she has enough acumen to earn bribe and share with is bosses.
It is also a bitter truth all frauds continues and continues until shareholders of the fraud are divided. Frauds are seldom unearthed by CA. CBI or any investigating agency, not to speak of nip in the bud.
As such my second point to attract your attention is that in my opinion there should not be any scope of Interview for existing employee for giving him promotion because quality of his services have already been tested and attested by management for a decade or two or even three.
Even 25 marks allotted for Interview in any departmental promotion processes are enough to make or mar the career of an officer in a bank or any government office. It is a bitter truth of our country that a corrupt officer get 25 out of 25 in interview process whereas a performer get hardly 10 out of 25 which results in diluting the effect of performance of an employee or good marks obtained by him in his appraisals. The great Supreme Court has even advised transparency in appraisal system, but banks management seldom respect even court advises if it hurts the personal interest of its executives. The more power is delegated in bosses the more chances of misutilisation of power and perpetuation of corrupt practices exists and increases in the system.
This is happening in not only in banks but also in all other government departments and this is why, whenever a new Chief Minister takes charge of a state, several IAS and IPS officers are transferred from one place to another as per whims and fancies of the ministers in the new government. Majority of decisions on postings, promotions and transfers are taken on the basis of earning capacity of the officer who can share his illegal earnings with the minister or support the minister in carrying out his illegal tasks for the benefit of his kith and kin or his party men.
In conclusion there should not be any stagnation in any scale of any cadre of any officer of any department or office or bank and there should be no Interview for existing employees to be promoted.
In my opinion whimsical posting, arbitrary promotions and abrupt but ill motivated transfers are the root causes of all corrupt practices prevailing in the Indian administrative, judiciary and political system.
It is the power delegated to persons sitting at post empowered to take whimsical decisions which irrigates ,cultivates and promotes the culture of flattery and demotivates the person who actually work and believe in honest performance.
It is unfortunate that no remedy can be obtained even from courts even after lapse of a decade or two .This is the reason that management of a bank or any office or any organ of the government at state or national level indulge in selling promotions and postings and in turn contributes directly or indirectly, willingly or unwillingly, in increasing the level of corruption.
As such, flattery culture is the root cause of all maladies. Unless there is strong political will to change the system there is no force on the earth which can stop or eliminate or even reduce the level of corruption in India.
Bureaucrats can do nothing if politician are dishonest in their area of operation. One Mr. T N Sheshan created havoc in Political arena. There are still some negligible numbers of IAS officers who leave no stone unturned to stop malpractices. But such officers are shunted by politicians, ministers to support their flatterers. These honest officers are the most sufferers in their career. These officers have to sacrifice their self esteem, shed their ego and sacrifice the interest of their family and social life. But how long? They also succumb and surrender before the system, sooner or later.
Last but not the least, if judicial process is made easy, affordable and quickest I think crime in all sphere of life will be reduced to 10%
Public sector bankers in their forties may soon begin moving across banks as a churn mechanism to make decisions faster and take on competition from new and foreign banks. This will mean the finance ministry will have a greater say in the promotion policy of these banks. The common promotion policy for all officers will begin from the grade of assistant general managers. Currently, the ministry decides on appointments only at the level of executive directors, three levels above AGMs. In the run-up to the exercise, the finance ministry recently advised all public sector banks to halt their promotion exercise for officers eligible to become assistant general managers. The promotions will resume once the ministry comes up with a policy on promotions and inter-bank transfers.
This step of the government will have more bad results and add fuel to already burning banks Flattery by bank officials to ministers and officials of RBI and Ministry of Finance will increase. As of now this was limited only to the post of General Manager and ED who lobbied MOF and RBI for getting quick and out of turn elevation to higher post and to get choice posting.GM and ED had to spend 25 to 50 lacs for getting the post of ED or CMD of other bank. Now even AGM and DGM will focus his attention on ministers and brokers of minister for getting promotions.
Not only this, these corrupt executives will have no more loyalty and attachment for any particular bank. They will spoil one bank and try to switch over to other bank to get rid of humiliation and punishment. Officers below Asst General Manager will also try to indulge in flattery and bribery to powerful ministers and powerful officials and brokers for getting choice bank in their home town or in home state. There will be no love and attachment for any bank in the mind of officers of any bank. Corrupt officials of banks will go on spoiling one bank after other bank.
Bad culture of flattery is already prevalent to some extent in public sector banks and it will get further boosted up by new step likely to be taken by Ministry of finance making interbank promotion and transfer a reality. Even if a government bank sinks due to bad lending, CMD of any banks has never been punished in the past forty years of bank’s nationalization for bad management, for taking bad decisions, for earning money in contractual and supply works, for bribe based recruitment and promotions and for failing to stop his junior bad executives indulging in bad lending.
Lacs and crores of rupees are spent and will more be spent by corrupt officials in extending red carpet welcome to their seniors to get favour. Costly gifts will be given to seniors to get out of turn promotion and choice posting. Public sector banks have already accumulated unmanageable and dangerous level of bad assets and this new culture will further ruin the situation and there is now doubt to me that PSBs will invite bad days, incur loss in thousands of crores of rupees as BSNL, Indian Airlines and other PSUs are incurring year after year and finally face crisis of survival giving private banks to proper by leaps and bounds. Inspite of all privileges enjoyed by public sector telecom operator or airlines or any public sector undertaking , they are incurring loss to the tune of thousands of crores of rupees whereas their counterparts in private sectors are earning profit in thousands of crores of rupees. Politicians protect and like only corrupt officers due to their own vested interest.
It is worthwhile to mention here that many CMD ofbanks have already spoilt public sector banks by their actions and they are still in the good book of MOF and RBI only because these corrupt CMDs are clever in data management and in the art of managing their superiors.. They indulge in and they promote bad culture not only in lending but also in recruitment, promotion and posting. ill-motivated lending to corporate, bribe based recruitment from campus in higher scales ,mischievous policy of transfer, bribe based waiver of high value loans, ill-motivated compromise with bad borrowers to reduce the quantum of Non Performing Assets like activities of top officials. They have already vitiated the culture in government banks and now new policy of interbank transfer and promotion will further add fuel to fire.
Though RBI advises banks to control NPA and restrict it to 2% of their gross advances, reality is that gross NPA percentage in thousands of branches have already crossed the level of 20 to 30 %. There are many branches in all banks where gross NPA percentage is more than 50 to 75% and still RBI think it wise to remain silent spectator. Many branches in Public sector banks have accumulated unmanageable proportion of bad assets and still our government feels pride in speaking from public platform that public sector banks are in good health and prospering more compared to private banks. Government with an intention to hide their failure in proper management , to sto exposure of their corruption and to conceal their non performance resort to infusion of capital to weak banks from time to time.
At least two out of ten Branch Managers and five out of ten credit officials are corrupt and they sanction new line of credit only after taking bribe and costly gifts. Almost every Regional Head have about ten such Branch Manager in their area of operation who blindly sanctions credit for the sake of bribe and for sharing the same with their regional heads. In this way at least 25% of branches in almost all regions have gross NPA more than 25%. These corrupt Regional Heads have built adequate capacity to motivate and buy their seniors and also to officers in Vigilance departments, CBI, HRD, MOF and RBI and this is why they are never trapped and caught even if they are corrupt from their bottom to top.
It will not be exaggeration to say that the most corrupt executive in a bank s made vigilance officer in the bank. This is why hardly ten officers out of one lac bank staff is punished for their corrupt activities whereas bitter truth is that there are hardly ten honest officers among one lac bank officers. Even though more than 75% of total advance in a branch is bad, higher management of the bank promotes Branch Manager of such Branch. Similarly a Regional Head or a Zonal Head or a Circle Head is elevated even if he or she has added assets worth tens and hundreds of crores of rupees in NPA portfolio.
Corrupt executives rather get quicker promotion and now they will get chance to move to other bank and get wider scope for accumulating wealth through ill-legal ways as officials in other government departments are getting and they will get rid of punitive actions too as hitherto corrupt officials are managing in prevalent corrupt system of administration. Munsi Prem Chand wrote long ago “when protector become damagers, none can stop destruction” When government is corrupt, when union leaders are corrupt and when investigating and action taking bodies are corrupt there is no fear in the mind of any evil doers in the banks or in any other department.
Public sector bankers in their forties may soon begin moving across banks as a churn mechanism to make decisions faster and take on competition from new and foreign banks. This will mean the finance ministry will have a greater say in the promotion policy of these banks. The common promotion policy for all officers will begin from the grade of assistant general managers. Currently, the ministry decides on appointments only at the level of executive directors, three levels above AGMs. In the run-up to the exercise, the finance ministry recently advised all public sector banks to halt their promotion exercise for officers eligible to become assistant general managers. The promotions will resume once the ministry comes up with a policy on promotions and inter-bank transfers.
This step of the government will have more bad results and add fuel to already burning banks Flattery by bank officials to ministers and officials of RBI and Ministry of Finance will increase. As of now this was limited only to the post of General Manager and ED who lobbied MOF and RBI for getting quick and out of turn elevation to higher post and to get choice posting.GM and ED had to spend 25 to 50 lacs for getting the post of ED or CMD of other bank. Now even AGM and DGM will focus his attention on ministers and brokers of minister for getting promotions.
Not only this, these corrupt executives will have no more loyalty and attachment for any particular bank. They will spoil one bank and try to switch over to other bank to get rid of humiliation and punishment. Officers below Asst General Manager will also try to indulge in flattery and bribery to powerful ministers and powerful officials and brokers for getting choice bank in their home town or in home state. There will be no love and attachment for any bank in the mind of officers of any bank. Corrupt officials of banks will go on spoiling one bank after other bank.
Bad culture of flattery is already prevalent to some extent in public sector banks and it will get further boosted up by new step likely to be taken by Ministry of finance making interbank promotion and transfer a reality. Even if a government bank sinks due to bad lending, CMD of any banks has never been punished in the past forty years of bank’s nationalization for bad management, for taking bad decisions, for earning money in contractual and supply works, for bribe based recruitment and promotions and for failing to stop his junior bad executives indulging in bad lending.
Lacs and crores of rupees are spent and will more be spent by corrupt officials in extending red carpet welcome to their seniors to get favour. Costly gifts will be given to seniors to get out of turn promotion and choice posting. Public sector banks have already accumulated unmanageable and dangerous level of bad assets and this new culture will further ruin the situation and there is now doubt to me that PSBs will invite bad days, incur loss in thousands of crores of rupees as BSNL, Indian Airlines and other PSUs are incurring year after year and finally face crisis of survival giving private banks to proper by leaps and bounds. Inspite of all privileges enjoyed by public sector telecom operator or airlines or any public sector undertaking , they are incurring loss to the tune of thousands of crores of rupees whereas their counterparts in private sectors are earning profit in thousands of crores of rupees. Politicians protect and like only corrupt officers due to their own vested interest.
It is worthwhile to mention here that many CMD ofbanks have already spoilt public sector banks by their actions and they are still in the good book of MOF and RBI only because these corrupt CMDs are clever in data management and in the art of managing their superiors.. They indulge in and they promote bad culture not only in lending but also in recruitment, promotion and posting. ill-motivated lending to corporate, bribe based recruitment from campus in higher scales ,mischievous policy of transfer, bribe based waiver of high value loans, ill-motivated compromise with bad borrowers to reduce the quantum of Non Performing Assets like activities of top officials. They have already vitiated the culture in government banks and now new policy of interbank transfer and promotion will further add fuel to fire.
Though RBI advises banks to control NPA and restrict it to 2% of their gross advances, reality is that gross NPA percentage in thousands of branches have already crossed the level of 20 to 30 %. There are many branches in all banks where gross NPA percentage is more than 50 to 75% and still RBI think it wise to remain silent spectator. Many branches in Public sector banks have accumulated unmanageable proportion of bad assets and still our government feels pride in speaking from public platform that public sector banks are in good health and prospering more compared to private banks. Government with an intention to hide their failure in proper management , to sto exposure of their corruption and to conceal their non performance resort to infusion of capital to weak banks from time to time.
At least two out of ten Branch Managers and five out of ten credit officials are corrupt and they sanction new line of credit only after taking bribe and costly gifts. Almost every Regional Head have about ten such Branch Manager in their area of operation who blindly sanctions credit for the sake of bribe and for sharing the same with their regional heads. In this way at least 25% of branches in almost all regions have gross NPA more than 25%. These corrupt Regional Heads have built adequate capacity to motivate and buy their seniors and also to officers in Vigilance departments, CBI, HRD, MOF and RBI and this is why they are never trapped and caught even if they are corrupt from their bottom to top.
It will not be exaggeration to say that the most corrupt executive in a bank s made vigilance officer in the bank. This is why hardly ten officers out of one lac bank staff is punished for their corrupt activities whereas bitter truth is that there are hardly ten honest officers among one lac bank officers. Even though more than 75% of total advance in a branch is bad, higher management of the bank promotes Branch Manager of such Branch. Similarly a Regional Head or a Zonal Head or a Circle Head is elevated even if he or she has added assets worth tens and hundreds of crores of rupees in NPA portfolio.
Corrupt executives rather get quicker promotion and now they will get chance to move to other bank and get wider scope for accumulating wealth through ill-legal ways as officials in other government departments are getting and they will get rid of punitive actions too as hitherto corrupt officials are managing in prevalent corrupt system of administration. Munsi Prem Chand wrote long ago “when protector become damagers, none can stop destruction” When government is corrupt, when union leaders are corrupt and when investigating and action taking bodies are corrupt there is no fear in the mind of any evil doers in the banks or in any other department.
Post a Comment