LETTER TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

No.NBOA.MUM/157B/2011-12                                                                                  19 December 2011

Hon’ble Member

Board of Directors                                                  

NABARD                                                                               

Mumbai

Respected Sir,

                                                  Request for Kind Intervention

The Central Executive Committee (CEC) of NBOA , the recognized and sole representative body of the 3000  officers of  NABARD , at its meeting held on 24/11/2011 at Mumbai , has as a last resort , decided to submit the following facts for your kind notice and beseech your kind intervention
 in the matter.

A) As you are kindly aware that, the management has embarked on a repositioning and restructuring exercise for NABARD as per the advice of Boston Consultancy Group. The report/recommendations of the BCG have been kept as a Secret from the officers Community and NBOA for the last one-n-half year despite our repeated requests to discuss the issue with NBOA. This is also in spite of the  past assurances given by the Ex- chairman Sri U. C. Sarangi , the then MD  Sri K. G. Karmakar and as also the present management to keep the NBOA in the loop in so far as the entire exercise of repositioning & Restructuring , based on the suggestions of BCG is concerned .

B) That, the bank has designed and implementing certain business propositions which are not entirely aligned to its mandate as enshrined in NABARD Act , 1982 and it indicates a clear deviation from NABARD’s assigned developmental role. Evolving and trekking a different trajectory, which may finally lead the organisation to become a Commercial entity that too without initiating a participatory and meaningful discussion/s within and outside the organizations framework is not a healthy trend being set in. Further more, it will neither be in the interest of millions of small and marginal farmers nor in tune with our assigned mandate towards rural development and institutional strengthening of institutions such as co-operatives and RRBs. NBOA, as a responsible body representative of officers has been expressing our concerns to the management in the past and gradually our apprehensions are coming true on all fronts along with the unfolding of the recommendations implemented one by one.

C) In addition to the above , the bank has very recently initiated certain administrative measures aimed at making drastic changes in the service conditions and promotion policies enshrined in the NABARD staff Rules, 1982. These measures, if implemented, will adversely affect the career prospects of thousands of officers and already it is leading to a demoralizing effect on all of us. Some of the major decisions taken on this aspect are-

1. That, the measures such as direct recruitment of officers in grade 'B' (Managers) will almost but effectively choke the career prospects of 576 officers in grade 'A' (Assistant Managers) of which 75% officers are in the age group of 28-30 years . Incidentally, out of these 576 Grade 'A' officers 415 are directly recruited from open market in the last three years after passing through a rigorous selection process and many of these officers are professionally qualified as prescribed by the NABARD.  The other Assistant Managers (i.e. non DRs) are carrying a rich experience of NABARD’s functioning, in most of the cases almost of 10 years or more. The direct recruitment at grade 'B' level was last resorted to by the bank in 1984-87 resulting in choking of the career prospects of those Grade 'A' level officers who were directly recruited by the bank from open market in the years 1984, 1988 and 1992 and now these officers are stagnating and languishing in at AGMs level for decades together. For the lack of foresight at that time, these Grade ‘C’ officers are being again penalized in the name of age Correction exercise and a situation is being created for a similar situation in NABARD, 15 years hence. Keeping in view this, the management has all along agreed to NBOA's demand for not resorting to any direct recruitment of officers except at the base level i.e. at the Grade 'A' level, the latest of such an agreement was during the wage settlement discussions held in November, 2010. Moreover, the direct recruitment at Grade ‘B’ level will further increase the bulge at grade ‘B’ level in the organization.
2. The introducing of Personal Promotion scheme for a handful of identified grade 'C' officers (AGMs) in the name of age-correction exercise is also discriminatory in nature as PP available to officers in all other grades , in line with that prevailing in RBI , is entirely grade-tenure based  and without forgoing any career progression opportunities. Sir , this is clear discrimination for grade 'C' officers who have already languished in the present grade for more than 12 to 14 years for want of vacancies at higher levels and branding them ‘unwanted’ in a clear message given by the management to all these officers in the specially convened meetings is so very much painful. Sir , we fail to understand the justification of this exercise specially when a CGM/ED/MD/chairman in the age group of 56-59 years are not only considered but really are efficient but a DGM/GM in the same age group are being branded inefficient and unfit for further promotion. Even if some of the officers will opt for this scheme it would hardly make any impact on the age correction exercise in grade 'D' as has been the case made out by the bank while putting up the things to the BODs on 05/12/2011. In fact, we firmly believe that the HR issues and status as is being made out by the bank are contrary to prevailing facts and this could be proved by NBOA on the basis of facts and figures.  
3. That , the bank in spite of our repeated requests has never undertaken and divulged the requirement of officers at various levels and every year an ad hoc system of calculating the vacancies goes on and on. As on date the bank has never indicated the required strength, sanctioned strength and actual strength of officers either at the HO level or at the RO levels.
4. That, the bank has decided to introduce a PAR system, which is non coherent to the assessment parameters of a DFI like NABARD , and which will , in absence of any specific defined roles and responsibilities for each level of officers in NABARD, will not be a true and objective methodology to assess the performance of any of our officers. Incidentally, such an appraisal system is nowhere in vogue in the entire banking Industry, inclusive of RBI and even in other apex organizations like SEBI, SIDBI, IRDA etc.  
5. In a number of cases officers are being subjected to uncalled for punishments in clear deviation of the rules as laid down in NABARD Staff Rules, 1982.

That all our efforts and requests to the Chairman in past few months , in the absence of a MD and a ED (HRMD & GAD) in the bank, to discuss and resolve the issues have failed to yield any results and NBOA is left with no other option but to earnestly beseech your kind intervention so that a conducive industrial harmony prevails in the organisation and NABARD, with its highly talented human resource pool , continues to march ahead in its strive to achieve its assigned agenda as also as a premier and unique DFI organisation of the country.

Sir, if you so desire and direct us, we shall be obliged to make all our points in person to you. We also assure your good self, as has been repeatedly assured to the Chairman, NABARD, that NBOA has always stood for any change in policy and programs of NABARD which are in the interest of the organization and officers community and NBOA has never been prejudiced to any person or policy in particular and as in the past is always ready to sit and discuss with an open mind in the true sense of 'convince or get convinced'.

We are sure that this communication of ours shall be taken in right perspective, solely aimed to preserve participative, transparent and equitable management culture of our great organisation. Sir, we once again assure you of all our cooperation to take this great organization of ours to newer heights.

Thanking you

Yours Sincerely,

(Dr D S Chauhan)                                                                                                   (U.K.Mohanty)

General Secretary                                                                                                 President