FM Warns Against Outside Influence For Transfer

Finmin warns bankers against using influence for transfer.
19 Mar, 2015, 1615 hrs IST, PTI

Last week, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had advised heads of public sector lenders to take commercial decisions without fear or favour.
...

NEW DELHI: Warning disciplinary action, the Finance Ministry has asked bank employees to desist from using political influence for appointment or transfer.
It has been decided to advise banks to sensitise their employees to refrain from using political pressure or bringing outside influence in matters of appointments so as to avoid disciplinary action as per rules, Department of Financial Services said in an advisory to heads of all public sector banks.

"Some employees of PSBs have been using political pressure or bringing outside influence in matters of appointments etc to Department of Financial Services," it said.
In this context, banks are advised to frame a fair and transparent system of transfers or postings as already conveyed and also build mechanism to address the grievances of their employees at their level, it said.

However, for genuine reasons, any exception to the rule is made, it should be done by CMD by giving proper reasons, it added.

Last week, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had advised heads of public sector lenders to take commercial decisions without fear or favour.

"CEOs of the banks and financial institutions (should) take commercial decisions without fear or favour as the government is committed to providing them financial autonomy both in letter and spirit," Jaitley said.

He insisted that the banks should have strong public grievances redressal mechanism in place so that their clients do not have to approach the government to redress their grievance

Unions reject Boston Consulting’s script for staff appraisal in State Bank of India -Hindu Business Line-1.03.2015

Employee unions in the State Bank of India have called for outright rejection of the new career development system proposed by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

Called ‘Saksham’ and scheduled for launch on April 1, it is a draft under discussion and subject to changes based on feedback from employees.

The consultants have listed ‘key result areas’ or criteria on which a person will be evaluated for the year.

The new system proposes five types of grades (instead of marks on 100) divided into AAA, AA, A, B and C in the order of excellence.

D Thomas Franco, prominent union leader, said computer data cannot measure performance in the bank as is the case being made out by BCG.

Franco is Joint General Secretary, All India Bank Officers’ Confederation, and Vice-President, All India State Bank Officers Federation.

Being part of a service industry, the bank is expected to deliver public service, including implementation of government programmes and policies.

‘No easy task’

“Managing the performance of an individual is not an easy task and requires many skills. Narrowing it down to CBS (core banking solution) data will not work,” Franco said.

Use of available CBS data to measure performance could even encourage stray elements to manipulate the data, which will affect institutional interest.

The alternative is to continue the present appraisal system (Annual Appraisal Report Format) with better transparency and a half-yearly review.

It is a sound system and takes into account the self-appraisal based on budgetary achievements and other non-measurable but verifiable achievements.

It has evolved scientifically over a period of time and covers business performance, house keeping, inspection, audit reports and other areas.

Many of the works executed by officers are simply not measurable, Franco said. He took exception to the fact that the unions were not consulted before assigning the work to BCG.

Cross-selling

Inclusion of cross-selling income as a key result area will make the employees divert bank deposits and lead to mis-selling of products to achieve targets at the cost of the bank’s image.

Incentives for cross-selling are already generating undesirable results, he pointed out.

E-learning as a key result area will make staff divert their time on self promotion at the cost of institutional interest.

The BCG proposal says that ‘request for transfers will be not be entertained for staff with a grading of B or below’.

This is unacceptable since transfer is governed by a transparent policy bilaterally discussed and agreed upon, Franco stated.

Ratan Tata to head Indian Railways' Kaya Kalp council -Economic Times-19.03.2015

NEW DELHI: Ratan Tata, former chairman of Tata Sons was on Thursday appointed as the head of 'Kayakulp' Council, an innovation council of the Indian Railways.

Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu constituted the 'Kayakulp' Council and appointed Tata to head it. The purpose of the Council is to recommend innovative methods and processes for the improvement, betterment and transformation of the Indian Railways.

According the Ministry of Railways press release, "This co ..

Read more at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/46623498.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

 

Human Resource Deelopment or Human Record Keeper HRD or HRK

In Public Sector Banks , Human Resource Department is not at all working the way they are supposed to work. HRD is functioning as if they are Human Record Keeper. You may name them HRK. RBI and Ministry of Finance work on certificates submitted by Banks that they (banks ) are healthy. Auditors and inspectors are selling their signatures. Very few are true vigilance officers , mostly it is VO who provide umbrellas to corrupt officers. And so on....Corrupt officers are exonerated by corrupt team of inquiry and investigative officials.

Otherwise there is no paucity of talented persons. Staff who join bank should be properly groomed, trained and motivated .The freshers should be treated in such a way that they start feeling proud of bank they joined. Good work of each staff should be praised before all and bad works of any staff should be dealt with in closed door room and such bad work should be taken as an opportunity to upgrade the quality of staff and not as an opportunity to abuse and rebuke .




??

There should be time bound promotions to motivate working in public sector banks . Flattery and bribery based recruitment, promotion and posting of staff should be stopped. Promotions based on recommendations of VIPs should be stopped by hook or by crook. Posting of officers should be made transparent and should not be solely dependent of whims of any boss or any interviewer but should be made dependent on decisions of a committee of at least five persons.

??



Wage of bank employees at all levels should be increased to retain talented workforce and stop people resigning from bank. Exodus of talented workforce are enough to give warning signals. Incentives should be given from time to time and these incentive should also be based on well thought indiscriminately rationales. Nothing should be left on whims and mercy of higher officials because majority of them do not deserve trust or are incapable to take a judicious decision .

It is the weakness of HRD and also that of our management system which are unable to keep good guys in banks. After all young guys join bank to earn bread and butter and also for getting respect in the society. In seventies and eighties ,unemployed youth used to feel elevated the moment they get joining order in banks service. Youth used to feel proud of bank service and their status used to be much higher in the society. On the contrary , now bank job is only the last resort to survive for an unemployed youth. Bank staff use to work late till night and they are unable to take care of their family .Erosion in status of bank employees started from 1991 and have reached to bottom during last decade.



The key reason is that there is corruption at all level. Reign of terror and culture of flattery has caused irrepairable loss to bank's health. No respect for those who work hard and devotedly. There is no proper place for sitting in many branches. Higher bosses do not give due recognition to good work done by juniors. Bosses search persons who are perfect Yes-man and who can earn bribe and share with them. Staffs who are expert in sycophancy moves faster in career. Even in recruitments, youth who are kith and kin of top officials are recruited in higher scale and paid higher salary . This dirty culture has created frustration among good workers as also in freshers.

Old guys are also not so much enthusiastic to serve and save banks , they are also passing days and waiting retirement. This is one of main reasons why assets in banks are moving from good to bad and from bad to worse and finally to losses. Volume of bad assets and stressed asses will continue to rise until Bank management learn and act to give weightage to experienced and talented workers.

I sometimes feel that as per PCR recommendations of 1978 , retirement age should be 55 years of age or 30 years of service so that at least weak and average workers leave the bank and in that place talented youth join bank . This will improve overall quality of service as also reduce wage load. HRD should be manned by experienced officers and/ or highly talented professions recruited from IIMs. and so on . Promotions should be based on strictly seniority. Merit oriented promotion policy has a lot of loopholes which is used by corrupt officials at top to turn it flattery oriented policy.

In India it is hard to imagine that a boss of public sector bank of and PSU will be absolutely and perfectly honest in recognition of good workers. Marks in Annual Appraisal Reports and in Interview is totally dependent on whims and fancies of who writes AAPR or who are member of Interview Panel. There are many factors like caste , community ,relation, liasoning with higher bosses , recommendation of VIPs, religion, region, yesmanism, bribery etc which affect and pollute the mind of top bosses who are entrusted the duty of picking up good staff for promotion to higher scales. Marks are not given on the basis of real performance in many cases. It is either whimsical or stereo type making or based on flattery or caste or recommendations of some other VIPS. Marks are therefore not at all indicative of level of goodness in any staff.

In many cases , Bosses are not at all capable to assess the performance of their juniors. Many bosses do not understand how to give marks in AAPR. Top Officials who are supposed to write APAR or review APAR do not give much value to its importance. Some officers give 90 to 95 marks to all juniors and some give 70 to 80 and some other 60 to 90 and so on. Marks given in APAR has got little relevance to reality at ground level.



Promotion processes use to take place generally at all India and these marks become irrelevant and killer of justice because marks in Interview is given higher when one is to be selected and given minimum marks when one officer has to be rejected. Members of Interview panel enter into Interview room keeping some chits of recommendation in pocket or some telephonic recommendations in mind. This is why even charge sheet served or failed or suspended officers or inefficient , unskilled or non-performers are promoted whereas many good workers are rejected in promotion processes who in turn feel suffocated in working in banks. Old guys continue in service only due to the fact that opportunity of better job for simple graduates and that too at the age of 35 or 40 is rare and few. Old guys though continue in service , they do not have love and affection for their organisation. This is why the sense of pulling on is found at all levels.

Ministry of Finance has to ponder over it seriously , otherwise health of banks will move from bad to worse. They cannot control and stop rise in stressed assets. Bank officers under pressure recover Rs.100 from bad borrowers, but hide Rs.1000 which is bad but treated as good and add fresh Rs.1000 new bad accounts every year. Situation has gone beyond their control. They set a committee or many committees for reformation on different issues , get report , read them till they retire or throw the same. Indifferent officials in RBI or in MOF or in GOI or in CBI think it better to refer the matter of corruption of top officials related to bad lending or bribe led lending or bribe led recruitment or promotions to some committee or the other and put carpet on the issue for ever. Even court cases are managed in favour of corrupt team so that reign of injustice is perpetuated for ever.

Marks On Annual Appraisal Report

AIUBOSA CIR GS: 185 / 2013-14 dated 06.06.2014

ALL INDIA UNION BANK OFFICER STAFF ASSOCIATION

(Affiliated to AIBOA) Phone: 9381036405 / 9791027140

Email: dsganeshanaiboa@gmail.com : dsganesanubi@gmail.com

Address: Don Flats, I Floor, No.19, SRP Colony 7th Street, Peravallur,

Chennai 600082

Cir.No.GS:185 / 2013 - 14

06.06.2014

To

All Officers

Dear comrades ,

OUR STAND POINTS ON APAR AND BATCH CONCEPT UPHELD BY HON’BLE MADRAS HIGH COURT

The issues confronting the officers in our Bank are:

1. APAR Marks: It is our organisation in our Bank, through judicial intervention in 2012, brought substantial relief to officers in the matter of APAR marks which is considered an importantingredient in the promotion process. Not only that, we have brought in, in the process, anappeal provision against the APAR marks awarded by the higher authorities, as an element ofbias prevails in awarding marks to officers. In the last process of promotion (2013-14),management had implemented sincerely the procedure established by our organisation inthe bank.

But this time (2014-15), the bank has altered the “applicability of APAR marks” only for thepromotion process from Scale 1 to 2 and Scale 2 to 3, i.e., instead of average of 75% marks

for the preceding three years, prescribed in the Government Guidelines, every year theabove mentioned officers are to secure 75% marks. Our organisational contention is that in

the same promotion process (2014-15), there cannot be two different yardsticks for selectionpertaining to APAR marks. Our sincere appeals have not evoked the reasonable response

from the management to correct the unscientific application of rules.

2. UNIFORM APPLICATION OF BATCH CONCEPT FOR PROMOTION:
   Bank while recruiting the Scale 1 officers in the year 2011 permitted the new recruits to join on or before 04.07.2011. There were officers who had reported for duty in July 2011.
   As the number of eligible officers is falling short, the bank has considered a relaxationof 3 months and 1 day. The government guidelines provide inclusion of batch for the
   purpose of promotion. We have requested the Bank to include the entire batchof officers so as to enable them to participate in the process of selection.
   Bank has failed to see the reasoning behind our arguments.

3. CONVERSION OF RDOS – A REPEAT EXERCISE DEMANDED:
   The promotion policy for officers provides conversion of specialized category to main stream on completion of five years. Accordingly, we have taken up the issue of conversion of Specialized Category of Officers to

Main Stream. The paradox of conversion exercise is that a RDO having 5 years of service to his credit to head the branch as Branch Manager is declared ineligible to join main stream based on 3 to 5 minutes personal interview. In our Bank, a directly recruited officer on mere completion of 2 years is eligible to move to Scale 2, whereas even after completion of 5 years of service and handling the branch as a Branch Head is denied of conversion in the same scale.

The so called officers’ federation has already enjoying the comfort of hibernation. As advised by the AIBOA leadership, our organisation having committed to the welfare of officers’

community in our Bank has sought relief through Judicial Intervention.

 “We are happy to report that the Hon’ble High Court of Madras has passed an order directing the Bank to allow the members of our organisation who were affected by APAR as well as Batch Concept to participate in the examination”.

Please await for further communication.

With Greetings,

Yours Comradely,

(D. S. GANESAN)

General Secretary

PLEASE CIRCULATE AMONG ALL OFFICERS

Crisis Of Human Capital Is More Alarming Than Money Capital

Human capital is the most critical issue for banks -LiveMint

Bankers say the issue of scarcity of human capital is more critical than the requirement of capital and rising bad assets

BY Mihir Dalal

 

Bangalore: Three chief executive officers (CEOs) of public sector banks (PSBs) and one from a private sector one took part in Mint’s first annual South India banking conclave to discuss Are Indian Banks Prepared to Play the Next Growth Cycle? in Bangalore on 30 April.

 

More than requirement of capital and rising bad assets, all participants said scarcity of human capital is critical. The PSB chiefs strongly felt there is no level playing field and the role of government, governance and culture needs to be changed to prop up their valuation in the market.

 

R.K. Dubey, chairman and managing director (CMD) of Canara Bank; C.V.R. Rajendran, CMD of Andhra Bank; V. Kannan, CMD of Vijaya Bank; and Shyam Srinivasan, managing director and CEO of Federal Bank Ltd, participated in the discussion, moderated by Tamal Bandyopadhyay, deputy managing editor of Mint. Edited excerpts:

 

Tamal Bandyopadhyay: By the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) estimate, the banks need about Rs. 8 trillion in the next five years between now and 2019, when the new Basel norms kick in, if bank credit grows at the rate of 20% every year. Economic growth in Asia’s third largest economy has been slow in the past many quarters, but things have started looking better and the country is expected to come back to a higher growth path. One of the reasons why banks need more capital is that they have been setting aside a huge amount of money to take care of their ballooning bad assets. Against this backdrop, I’ll ask each of you to share your views on the challenges before banks if India comes back to a relatively higher growth path and companies start asking for credit.

 

Shyam Srinivasan: For a bank like us, which is relatively small in the pecking order, the opportunity is boundless. Even if India grows at 5-6%, we are well capitalized. So for us, it’s about gaining market share and not be constrained by capital. But for all banks, the challenge is how do you underwrite risk? You also spoke about bad assets, which constrain the lending capability.

The core of what we see that has worked in multiple environments in our country and abroad is that underwriting has largely been about “I know him and so I can lend to him”, from “I know the business, so I can lend to that business”. So, there is a core competency that needs to be materially lifted. With many influences that come on banking institutions both in the form of client pressure and regulatory pressure, there are often compromises that lead to this NPA (non-performing asset) challenge.

 

So those banks that have capital constraints need to figure out efficiency measures. The structural issue of how do you underwrite, how do you create independence in the risk origination, risk underwriting and risk collection is a material challenge, which more and more banks are becoming acutely aware of. The way ahead is to scale that capability because we are diversified. Federal Bank is not constrained by capital, but is constrained by the ability to gain share.

 

Bandyopadhyay: Essentially what you’re saying is that capital is not an issue; rather it’s risk management.

 

C.V.R. Rajendran: Yes, capital is not a major issue. My bank requires Rs.11,000 crore over the next five years if we’re growing at 20%. For this year and the next year, capital is not a challenge. Whatever government support is coming that should be sufficient. If at all growth comes and I’m able to recover the NPAs, it goes straight to the bottom line and that will increase profitability. The major challenge is to bring back enthusiasm in credit officers. They are wounded soldiers today. Bringing back the enthusiasm among them will take time. They are affected by the CVC (Central Vigilance Commission) inquiries, by internal action taken against them by banks. Today, the model is: originate the loan and keep it on your balance sheet. Going forward, the model will be: originate the loan and sell. If I’m not interested in growing a portfolio, I can sell it and still retain profitability. 

 

Bandyopadhyay: You’re talking about securitization.

 

Rajendran: Securitization and various other options.

 

Bandyopadhyay: So, you’re saying much more than capital, the problem is the culture—CVC harassing your credit officers and destroying their morale.

 

Rajendran: Yes, people will take some time to come out of it.

 

V. Kannan: I look at this problem in a slightly different manner. You talk of 20% growth rate. What is more important is the growth rate of the risk-weighted assets. It doesn’t need to be at the same rate as the growth of advances. So, what is important is capital conservation—proper capital allocation for each type of business activity. We need to get into the issue whether the returns are commensurate to the capital deployed for that activity rather than yield on advances, return on capital employed.

The second is the ability of internal capital generation. As of now, for most of the banks because of the stress, this particular segment is restricted. So, for growth, we necessarily need to look at capital- raising—25% can be expected in core equity and 75% in other instruments.

 

It’s not been the right time for any PSB to go to the market to raise capital. The sentiment has to change. It can change with good results and from other non-financial matters. And if the market is not helping you, go back to the principal owner, the government. But no bank will get the entire amount and so we need to explore other instruments. It has to be tested and there are regulatory issues there. As of now, there is only one major player who can invest there. For the current year, capital is not a problem for Vijaya Bank, but if we’re talking about five years, it will be a challenge.

 

R.K. Dubey: We need to be optimistic. We need not be worried about the next growth cycle; banks are prepared for that. Yes, there will be differences between one bank and another, but banks are geared up for the growth cycle. We’re only looking for changes outside and inside that will make us function smoothly. I’m very optimistic about improvement in the economy in the coming years.

Our bank has been growing at over 20% and our asset quality also has been good. In March 2013, our gross NPAs were 2.57% (of total loans). We’re hopeful that the bank’s asset quality may not deteriorate. It may be around 2% in the coming year and by that time the economy is likely to improve. So, for Canara Bank, asset quality and growth won’t be problems and up to 2015, capital also is no problem. But there are other issues— infrastructure financing, human resources… Those guys who joined in the 1970s are retiring now. Suddenly, we’re recruiting thousands of people. Training so many people and integrating them with old employees is a challenge. The last point would be strengthening risk management and use of technology for financial inclusion and mobile banking.

 

Bandyopadhyay: All of you are claiming that everything is fine with your banks, but the RBI is concerned about rising bad assets and capital requirement. The investors are not bullish on PSBs. You will find it very difficult to raise money from the market as it is not ready to appreciate your value. Besides, the government stake cannot come down below 51% under current norms. Finally, the government cannot pump in taxpayers’ money to recapitalize banks year after year because of the high fiscal deficit.

 

Rajendran: I agree with you that there are a lot of challenges in raising capital. As you rightly put it, there’s not much interest in PSBs because of profitability issues. Dubey rightly said that the PSBs have not been able to leverage technology the way private sector banks have done. As far as skill sets are concerned, PSBs are not below private sector banks. It is only that the necessary freedom isn’t given to the former. That is a major challenge.

 

Bandyopadhyay: So the government comes in the way?

Rajendran: The government comes in the way. For quite a long time, profit itself was considered to be a sin. If a private sector bank has an NIM (net interest margin) of 4.3%, the market appreciates, but if a PSB has a similar NIM, the government and the RBI say you’re not supposed to have such high profit margins. Talk about directed lending—it’s not insisted on private sector banks to the extent it happens to PSBs. Interference in the private sector is much, much less.

 

Bandyopadhyay: Are you under pressure to lend to certain sectors?

 

Rajendran: To a certain extent, yes.

 

Bandyopadhyay: Essentially what you’re saying is that you don’t lack skill sets or expertise, but the problem is government rules and regulations. 

 

Rajendran: We’re not on an equal footing with private banks.

 

Kannan: I agree with most of the points made by Rajendran. Why are public shares not favoured by the market? For historical reasons, PSBs have more exposure to infrastructure

.

Bandyopahyay: Because of pressure from the government?

 

Kannan: I don’t think there’s any pressure. It (exposure to infrastructure) is there in the books and it is not that easy to come out of it. Why would an investor look at a PSB when he has an alternative? He will only look for returns on the money he is investing. Along with the infrastructure exposure, there is stress and the long time it takes for resolution (of bad assets). PSBs also have a heavy ALM (asset-liability mismatch). Investors, particularly foreign and professional investors, take all these factors into consideration.

 

Then, there are issues of management and corporate governance. What is the quality of the CEOs, and the tenure and the composition of the board? The contribution of board members? How much freedom is there to make decisions? We may be delivering profits, but the market looks at consistency. I have the view that the share price is an indication of the discount of the future, not of the past performance. So if they have the confidence, the share price will go up.

 

Dubey: I see no pressures. The environment for PSBs and private sector banks are different, and they need not be compared. There are corporate governance issues, but they are there in private sector banks too. Every organization has a different set of issues, but those banks that are able to address them have lesser problems.

 

A few years ago our stocks were the darling of the stock market. Why is everyone so critical of the PSBs now? Nothing has gone wrong. Our fundamentals remain as they were then. As far as Canara Bank is concerned, the asset quality hasn’t gone weak, growth hasn’t gone down and nothing has gone wrong. The stock, which was at Rs.600 and rising to Rs.700, is now at Rs.300. It is the market sentiment that is down. Everyone is critical— the RBI, the analysts, and your column Banker’s Trust. Maybe in another two-three years, you’ll again see the stock going up and capital will not be that big an issue as it is being made out to be.

 

Bandyopadhyay: Shyam, you’re from the private sector. Why do you think the market gives a thumbs down to PSBs?

 

Srinivasan: As Kannan pointed out, the stock price is the discount of the future earnings. The crucial part is that ownership is one thing, but it is about the culture that is built because of the ownership. If you’re living in a country where more than 50% of the population is young and aspirational, then your staff need not necessarily be young, but should be youthful to reflect the requirement that is there in the market. How do you move from a culture of entitlement—which the system has long engendered—towards a culture of performance? And then the rewards follow.

 

Whether it is financial capital or human capital, it is driven by the kind of institution that you have and are you able to show continued, sustained progress. You’re hiring youngsters—they have a lot of energy, but very little experience. The middle-aged workforce is highly experienced. There’s a cultural mismatch, an ethnic mismatch and an experience mismatch. How do you foster that together, and bring a culture that requires leadership and a drill that needs to be deep into the organization? That’s the biggest challenge for the next three-five years… This is the time to talk less financial capital and talk more human capital.

 

Bandyopadhyay: So, capital is not a big problem, but there are other issues, and you are aware of your shortcomings and deficiencies. One critical aspect is the human capital, not the financial capital and you’re finding ways to tackle it. Thank you all

Link The Mint

Comments On Union Letter

Mr. Pannavalan's COMMENTS ON HARVINDER SINGH’S PRESS RELEASE

( copy of Union Letter is given below )

I am really amused by the AIBOC general secretary’s action now. Should this not have been done 2 years ago?

Moreover, this press release is conspicuously silent with regard to -

1. Unregulated working hours of bank officers (as against fixed working hours for all in the government/other public sector organizations)
2. Working 6 days a week (as against 5 days a week for Govt/PSUs/I.T. Sector)
3. Full day working on Saturdays (even though Saturday is supposed to be only a half  day working for bankers)
4. Working on Sundays and other holidays (this has become so regular, affecting one’s family life and severely impacting one’s responsibilities to others outside the bank)
5. Very frequent transfers that also to far off places outside one’s linguistic region (Stability of tenure is not guaranteed; this kind of frequent transfers results in heavy drain in financial resources and quick exhaust of all one’s leave, besides causing great mental disturbance)
6. Risks encountered - Financial risk, reputation risk, career risk, threats to physical safety, health deterioration, show cause notices, suspensions and charge sheets
7. Doing the jobs of all others in the society, thus deviating from core banking

Probably, if all these are explained in detail, it will amount to open admission of failures, on the part of Trade Unions in banks.  Precisely because of this, they were (cleverly) omitted in the said press release issued by Mr Harvinder Singh, General Secretary of AIBOC.

Other important aspects not touched were:

1. Non-availability of Grade Pay for Bankers
2. Wide disparity in HRA paid (only a pittance is paid as HRA to bank staff)
3. Absence of Transport Allowance with variable D.A.  (Transport Allowance paid to Central government staff every month attracts full D.A.)
4. Denial of Children's Educational Allowance to Bank staff
5. Unlike their counterparts in the central government, bank staff are not eligible for Paternity leave
6. Bank staff can accumulate only up to 240 days of P.L. at any time.  In contrast, central government employees can accumulate their P.L. up to 300 days. Another tragedy here is, on one hand, bank officers are denied leave on genuine grounds and on the other, they are unable to accumulate P.L. beyond 300 days, leading to lapse of precious leave.  This is a great source of savings to the bank managements at the cost of their officers.
7. Most importantly, bank staff do not get their pension revised automatically with each wage revision, unlike the government employees.

Yesmen And Flatterers Are Always First Choice

Yesman Can Be Promoted First superceding other eligible and more competent persons, Yesman Can Get Job Even After Retirement And Yesman Can Be Exonerated Of All Charges- This is the culture mostly in all administrative departments, all political processes and all social bodies.

CMD of Banks and public sector undertakings who are number one Yesman of Ministers are given lucrative jobs even after their retirement even if they are corrupt and there are several adverse reports on his conduct.

CVC rakes up row over appointment of Ramasundaram as CBI Additional Director -Economic times 11.02.2014
NEW DELHI: BJP and the Congress-led UPA government are again on collision course over the affairs of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), this time over the appointment of a senior CBI officer. 

The latest round has been set off over the last week's appointment of Tamil Nadu batch IPS officer Archana Ramasundaram as Additional Director in CBI. The Central Vigilance Commission has complained that the Appointments Committee of Cabinet headed by the prime minister ignored a seletion. committee recommendation to appoint West Bengal cadre officer RK Pachnanda for the same post. 

According to a CVC source, Ramasundaram's name was not recommended by the selection committee at all. BJP reacted to the development by saying, "the government is imposing its officers on CBI. Inadvertent mistakes don't happen in such high-level appointments. There is a clear violation of rules in this appointment," BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/cvc-rakes-up-row-over-appointment-of-ramasundaram-as-cbi-additional-director/articleshow/30188632.cms

Do away with CVC clearance for post-retirement jobs for secys,-Business Standard

Government should do away with the need for vigilance clearance for secretaries who are appointed to statutory and constitutional posts within six months of their retirement, the Prime Minister's Office had been told by a former incumbent in the post of the Chief Information Commissioner. 

Satyananda Mishra, who is presently chairman of the Multi Commodity Exchange, had made the recommendation before his retirement as Chief Information Commissioner. 

Mishra had argued that appointments to crucial posts had been held back over the requirement for vigilance clearance. 

"In recent years, one keeps hearing of numerous cases in which appointment of an existing director of a PSU or a bank as CMD has been held up for long periods ... Only because the vigilance clearance is not received in time and because numerous complaints, often engineered by rivals, keep pouring in as soon as the proposal is mooted for such appointments," Mishra had written to Pulok Chatterjee, the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister. 

In the letter, the contents of which have been made public under the RTI Act by Commodore (retd) Lokesh Batra, Mishra has said that the problem had assumed serious proportions and was impacting the filling up of vacancies in key positions. 

Until a few years back, no such clearance was required for filling up statutory positions, especially if the person concerned was serving as a secretary to the Government of India at the time of appointment or a few months prior to that, the letter says. 

"The assumption was that if somebody was fit to be secretary to the Government of India, he would not need any further clearance from CVC for appointment to a Statutory/ Constitutional office," the letter adds. 

Mishra had suggested that the government may go back to the old practice of appointing serving senior officers like secretaries or those who had just retired from service to the various statutory and constitutional positions without seeking any prior vigilance clearance from the CVC.

http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/do-away-with-cvc-clearance-for-post-retirement-jobs-for-secys-114012901255_1.html

CVC recovers Rs 200 crore from government departments-Jagaran Post--11.02.2014

New Delhi: The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) recovered Rs 200 crore after conducting technical examination of public procurement and other works being carried out by various government departments last year.

The anti-corruption watchdog is mandated to conduct technical examination of any public works done by Central government departments or public sector enterprises under its jurisdiction.

As many as 53 reports were submitted to the Commission by its Chief Technical Examination wing which resulted in recovery of about Rs 198.97 crore, according to CVC's monthly performance reports for the year.

The highest recovery of Rs 109.68 crore was made in January, Rs 6.48 cr in February, Rs 5.67 cr in March, Rs 1.07 cr in April, Rs 5.15 cr in May, Rs 35.33 cr in June, Rs 21.26 cr in July, Rs 10.30 cr in August, Rs 1.64 cr in September, Rs 1.36 cr in October, Rs 57.68 lakh in November and Rs 38.93 lakh in December 2013.

The probity watchdog had effected a recovery of Rs 151.19 crore during 2012.

According to CVC's performance report for December 2013, as many as 1,251 corruption complaints, including 22 from whistle blowers, were processed during the month. It sought investigation or factual report in 54 complaints from the concerned ministries or departments.

The CVC advised initiation of major penalty proceedings against 71 officials of various central government departments which include a Joint Director of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, four General Managers from Industrial Development Bank of India, an Executive Director of Dena Bank and an IFS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre.

Besides, the then Chairman and Managing Director of National Project Construction Corporation Ltd and a General Manager from Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd were also advised the penalty by the Commission during the month.

On the advice of the Commission, competent authorities imposed major penalties on 92 officials of various ministries or departments which include a General Manager from Air India, a General Manager from Punjab National Bank, a Chief Engineer and Superintending Engineer from Delhi Development Authority, it said.

http://post.jagran.com/cvc-recovers-rs-200-crore-from-government-departments-1391007364

Security OF ATM And Branches Of Banks

After the incident of a lady drawing cash from ATM attacked by miscreant in Bangalore, police has given instruction to bankers either to provide security guard, alarm bell and CCTV at each ATM or they will close the ATM shutters. It is true that providing Armed Guard at ATM or keeping CCTV facility or alarm bell in ATM may provide safety to some extent.

But the root causes of such type of incidents lie in not only absence of security guard at ATM but also in several other factors.

One of the key factors is total lawlessness in the country. People do not want to lodge even FIR at police station on any criminal act committed by criminals. Rather people of India hate police and abuse police for providing protections to criminals and torturing innocent.  On the contrary criminals do not fear police and do not fear judiciary because they know the art of managing the police or court cases in their favour. They know how to motivate police force and how to motivate judges through their advocates or any other middleman in courts. 

This is why Criminals can attack not only in ATM, they can loot any branch anywhere in India irrespective of the fact it is manned or unmanned by security guard. There are hundreds of instances where branches or cash van secured by number of security guards have been looted in broad daylight and police fails to even catch them in many cases of dacoity and loot.  Not only banks or ATM, even any house situated in any corner of the country are subject to risk of attack from criminals and terrorist and naxals. In such position, it will be better on the part of Bangalore police to demand provision of security guard, CCTV and alarm bell in every home, every office and every nook and corner of the country.

In our country, quality of majority of security guards provided at bank’s branches or in ATM is also questionable. Such guards are neither physically fit, nor adequately trained and nor bold and competent enough to cope with criminal attacks. They simply sit idly outside ATM and any street boy can push him away to do what he or she likes to do.

Thirdly it is pity that  bank management do not think it necessary to provide security guards even in all Branches dealing in cash , not to speak of ATM where cash is secured to a great extent in comparison to open cash at branches. It is primarily due to the fact that  bank management do not have enough capacity to spend on security. They do not have enough manpower to provide for operation in branches. They open the branches without adequate manpower and adequate infrastructure. This is because they do not have any vision how to secure their bank and their workforce who are prone to risk of criminal attacks at many branches. They do not bother even if such bank officials indulge in bad lending to get rid of local musclemen or powerful politicians. 

Banks which cannot afford for respectable wage hike to own staff cannot dream of providing security at ATM or at branches or to its customers.Profit making motto has become dominant over social security and social welfare in the era of liberalization , globalisation and privatization.

Bank managements  are simply opening branches after branches and ATM after ATM  and such mad rush for opening of new  branches and new ATM is simply to please ministers .They never think it wise to recruit enough strong guards and enough manpower to man the branches they open. Further even if they decide to recruit manpower for any post, they have to oblige various Netas, castes, communities, government officials and other VIPs in the matter of all types of recruitment sacrificing the quality.

Lastly even rulers of this country do not want to build pressure on bank management to properly plan their manpower and other related infrastructure before branch expansion and enlargement of ATM network in the country.

Government of India should formulate branch and ATM expansion plan to stop mad rush and reckless expansion undertaken by different banks to compete with each other but at the cost of public money and jeopardizing the interest of customers and investors.

Finance Minister has to stop advising banks to open thousands of branches and ATM in short span of time without giving them enough time to manage the affairs in right and effective way. They have to stop allotting unachievable and sky touching targets to bankers and they have to stop corruption in all recruitment, promotions and transfers and so on.

Security at ATM cannot and should not be considered in isolation. Broad outlook with long term vision has to be in place to secure all persons and all banks and all ATMs and all houses. Otherwise I have no doubt that these politicians who are making only voted bank oriented plans for banks will force bank’s complete failure and collapse sooner than later

As a matter of fact if police forces are active all the 24 hours in a day there is no possibility or rare possibility of criminals attacking innocent people in ATM or elsewhere.Even now instances of criminal attacking common men at common places , shops, residences and offices are more than that at ATM

Netas have to stop their habit of interfering in police matters and stop using all incidents for vote bank. Politicians have to stop putting wrong and baseless allegations against police. Politicians have to stop accusing police of false encounters for political gain. Politicians have to stop speak openly against police force to stop demoralization of police forces. If there is any case of real injustice by police with any person, they should learn the habit of lodging their grievance in writing with some other forum or grievance redressal organization. This culture has to be inculcated in all offices and in all departments.

If security is made available for all citizens at all places , I think banks will not need providing security guards or will not demand charges for withdrawal of money from own ATM or other bank’s ATM from own customers or other bank’s customers.

The style of functioning of Aam Admi Party in Delhi will very soon open the eyes of traditional politicians and create an atmosphere where corrupt officials , corrupt police personnel and corrupt politicians will be forced to stop their corrupt practice and start thinking in the interest of common men willingly or unwillingly. If police become vigilant 24 hours and do their duty sincerely , no security guard will  be needed either in banks or in ATMs.

Ridiculous for banks to charge for withdrawals at own 

ATMs: KC Chakrabarty, RBI DG-

Times of India -ET10.01.2013 ( My views given below)

Lashing out at the proposal from the Indian Banks' Association to start charging customers for ATM withdrawals, Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor KC Chakrabarty has said that such a move on the part of banks would be 'ridiculous' and 'illogical'.

Speaking exclusively to ET NOW, Mr Chakrabarty says "it is very, very ridiculous that banks are charging the customers for withdrawing money, and that too from their own ATMs -- it never happens anywhere." He goes on to add that this is something that only further competition in the industry can rectify. "If the cost of withdrawing money is so high so that they charging you, then they may just start charging you even if you go to a bank branch. That is why I feel we require more banks, there is not enough competition and banks are becoming illogical," quips Mr Chakrabarty.

Of late banks have started complaining of rising costs, after several state governments have made it compulsory for banks to install round-the-clock security guards at their ATMs. According to the Indian Banks' Association (IBA), the cost of providing physical security to these ATMs is upwards of Rs 4,000 crore for the system. "We have no choice but to raise the charges, we have proposed that free transactions at ATMs be capped at five per month," said MV Tanksale, CEO, IBA in an interaction with journalists earlier this week. Interestingly, the move comes at a time when the RBI and banks are trying to push customers to use ATMs more, in an attempt to bring down transaction costs at branches.

But Mr Chakrabarty concedes that banks may end up with no choice but to raise charges if the costs are unviable. "If the banks are not able to do a particular business because the pricing is adverse I don't think there is any other way but to rectify the pricing," he says.

However, the RBI is yet to receive any formal intimation from banks on the subject. If and when the banks raise the issue with the regulator, the RBI is expected to set up a committee that will look into all the costs and arrive at a fair amount for the charges. At present, the RBI has not prescribed any charges for cash withdrawals at ATMs if the customer is using a card of the same bank, though the fee for withdrawals at other ATMs has been capped at Rs 20, after five free cash transactions.

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-01-08/news/45991494_1_indian-banks-own-atms-more-banks

Banking sector needs 1.5L more guards for ATMs-

Times of India---(Read my views below)

BANGALORE: The countdown has begun, and banks operating ATM kiosks in Bangalore have just two days to appoint security guards or shut shop, as directed by the government. But industry body Assocham claims there's a shortfall of 1.5 lakh security guards for ATM operations across the country.

Of about 1.25 lakh ATMs in India, Assocham said only 50,000 have security guards, leaving 75,000 kiosks unguarded, which means a demand for 1.5 lakh guards, one on day and a second on night shift. With only 1.15 lakh of the 1.25 lakh ATMs equipped with CCTVs, the industry body said the security scenario needs to be addressed seriously.  

India's largest security group, Topsgrup, agreed with Assocham: "The (Bangalore) incident is not the first such attack due to the lack of security personnel. Physical attacks at ATMs are not confined to particular regions in the country. ATM manufacturers, banks and financial institutions, and the security industry need to look at a comprehensive approach and multi-layered security programme to prevent such breaches and attacks."

Ramesh Iyer, vice-president and CEO, Topsgrup India, said the company is looking at alternative emergency systems for clients in India.

"The attack underscores the need for guards to ensure all ATMs are properly guarded and equipped with security gadgets, other than CCTVs," DS Rawat, secretary general, Assocham said.

Internationally too, guidelines on ATM security do not prescribe a guard. The New York state banking department's ATM Safety Act, for example, has a series of guidelines for customer safety but there's no mention of a security guard for every kiosk. But the reaction time of police in New York, and their monitoring systems are way more efficient than in India, which probably makes up for the lack of guards at every ATM.

Argues Assocham: "While recruitment of guards to man all ATMs 24X7 may be time-consuming and a costly affair, the answers lie in using hi-tech gadgets like automatic alarms, improving camera footage and setting up monitoring rooms which require coordination between banks and police authorities."