HRMS - Unending Difficulties

No. NBOA.MUM/003/2013-12  28/05/2012

The Chairman

NABARD

Head Office

Mumbai

Dear Sir,

HRMS – Unending Difficulties

The introduction of HRMS package was hailed by all of us as a step towards simplification of process with speedy disposal of eligible services/ facility to staff and officers. NBOA on its part has been advising its membership to be a little patient on the issue as we expected that it may take a month or two before everything is settled smoothly. However to our utter dismay the following is put forth for your kind consideration-

It has been painfully observed that under the garb of simplification/HRMS the bank has initiated and implemented decisions to deny the monetary benefits/perks and other facilities at par with RBI, which is otherwise available to us both statutorily, legally, administratively as also as a matter of convention & practice for last 30 years. Sir, you may recall the all the major Industrial Disharmony events have occurred at NABARD in the past only when the bank or GoI has given indications that parity with RBI shall be denied. On each occasion AINBOA and AINBEA too have launched a concerted agitation and each time our legitimate demands on the issue of parity with RBI has been clinched effectively. We request your good self to immediately intervene and remove all the deviations as far as monetary benefits and other service conditions of NABARD officers vis-a-vis parity with RBI is concerned.

You may be aware that due to implementation of HRMS many officers are continued to be devoid of Housing Loan facility, Car Loan facility and Tour advances w.e.f. February '12 onwards for months together. It has lead to financial loss to officers by way of imposing of penalty by the builders and also due to the price hike both in property as well as automobile sector in last few months.

Medical reimbursements are pending for months together and even the medical bills already settled manually are pending for payment. Similarly, non providing of Tour and LTC advance, as also the non settlement of Tour and LTC Bills has put the officers in great difficulty and in many cases it has lead to cancellation/postponement of LTC journeys.

The issues pertaining to Tour programs and Medical Bills of DDMs with specific reference to the fact that the Bills have to be sent to HO directly now by DDMs after getting approval from RO is not only cumbersome but beset with 'lost in transit' syndrome too.

Travel plans of the officers on transfer as submitted and approved are not being adhered to by the travel agency while booking the air tickets and in a few cases officers have been left to fend for themselves or have been made to travel by longer and uncomfortable routes in spite of the fact that tickets were available on direct flights on the day of journey. In the process, officers have been put to difficulty and Bank has been made to pay higher cost of tickets (in certain cases even up to 40-50%). In case so desired we can provide you dozens of such instances. It appears that the only beneficiary to the HRMS has been Balmer & Lawry which has got All India 'captive business ' and in turn the agency is fleecing the Bank. We demand a thorough look in the business dealings of the agency concerned with NABARD.

It is widely believed that system software are so designed that they take care of corporate rules and regulations, but in our case it appears that our rules and Regulations are being moulded and remoulded to take care of system software and in all the cases the officers are at the receiving end.

More so now, it appears that entire office is involved in GAD work, each one of us-from top to bottom-is engrossed with 'empower'-running here and there for getting a foot hold and then finally even if you reach 'submit' and 'print' stage then get it dispatched either directly (in case of DDMs) or through CRDS and also get a copy of documents preserved for future reference. We can just say that an internal study at least should be mounted to compute if now more manpower and man-days are being consumed for GAD related work as compared to Pre-HRMS era or not.

Keeping in view the above fact we request you to review the whole gamut of this BCG suggested HRMS exercise and rethink on decentralizing certain aspects of HRMS- such as staff loans , medical and Tour Bills etc.-to RO level may be without altering the framework of HRMS and also without diluting or deviating from the pre-existing and agreed upon aspects of service conditions.

Thanking You

Yours Sincerely

---sd-----

(Dr D. S. Chauhan)

General Secretary