Letter to DFS, MoF, GoI

1. Secretary (DFS), GoI, New Delhi
2. Directors on Board of NABARD                           

Respected Sir,

With great humility we request your kind consideration  on the following aspects which have led to great resentment and restlessness among the officers community and request your kind and urgent intervention -

 

A.      BUSINESS RELATED ASPECTS –

The bank has sought consultancy services with Boston Consultancy Group (BCG) reportedly for Restructuring & Repositioning of NABARD. NBOA has always been positive in its attitude and have never resented the process of change required in order to effectively carry on the assigned mandate of NABARD. However, the bank, instead of debating and putting the entire process of consultancy  in an transparent mode has gone about it in a hush-hush manner. All our requests and persuasions to the bank to take NBOA and officers community on board in the entire process fell on deaf ears and all the assurances given by the bank to keep NBOA in the loop on this aspect have never been honored till this day. In fact, the bank has neither discussed nor divulged the report/suggestions given by the BCG. We understand that no report has been submitted by BCG to NABARD.  The Management is taking certain retrograde decisions one after the other, all in the name of Consultancy Report and reportedly with Boards’ approval.  Policy decisions have been taken by the bank in the name of Repositioning of NABARD, which has led to dilution of assigned mandate of NABARD.   We illustrate a few instances:-

a)       NABARD has also closed of 17 District Offices, even in very backward districts and the issue was even raised by the hon’ble members of Parliament in the parliament of the country.

b)       Quietly and discreetly 11 departments (mainly pertaining to Refinance and developmental works of NABARD) and three training institutes (NBSC, Lucknow and  NBTCs) have been closed in the name of merger and streamlining the functions.

c)       Almost all the business models suggested by the BCG (direct finance to DCCB and  PACS, Financing of Producers Organanisations, other financial corporates and also direct financing for infrastructure projects) have either failed to take-off or have been shelved as they were found to be unviable and unsustainable and also not in tune with our mandate.

d)       Decision to provide Refinance to banks for financing private corporate bodies  out of the RIDF corpus without taking the concurrence of RBI, has drawn flak from the regulator and it is feared that the end result of this misadventure will result in a hefty blow to NABARDs’ bottom lines.

e)        Decision to directly finance some of the DCCBs has also raised many an eyebrows, specially from the Apex Cooperative banks and Cooperative federations.

f)         Curtailment of all Farm sector and Non farm sector developmental initiatives by NABARD has changed the face of promotional initiatives of   NABARD and the promotional works of are now hampered.

  

B. HR Related Issues

a)       All such unilateral decision making , all in the name of restructuring and repositioning has not only truncated the functioning of NABARD as a DFI but has also led to curtailment of already gloomy career progression of NABARD officers, specially at the middle management level. The recently promulgated  'Recruitment & Selection Policy' reportedly on the behest of BCG recommendations and Board directives is highly retrograde in nature and has left almost 1200-1600 out of total 2800 officers ineligible for promotions for all times to come. This has created a high level of dissatisfaction and de-motivation among the officers community. All efforts of NBOA to have an amicable way out through a dialogue have been thwarted by the bank and finally NBOA was left with no alternative but to seek legal intervention on the issue. The contention of management that the NABARDs’ policy is as per RBIs promotion policy is a misnomer as it has got many deviations from the RBIs’ policy.

b)       Abolishing of 6 posts of EDs-an in cadre posts- has led to a wide scale demotivation at the top most level and it will bring in large scale frustration among the CGMs. Even the decision of the GoI towards recruitment of DMDs has left the top executives frustrated and disillusioned as senior most CGMs and the lone surviving ED has been made ineligible for the post of DMDs.

c)       GoI's decision to keep the post of MD vacant and present managements decision to abolish ED (HRMD)  post  has led to total  centralization of power in one hand and our repeated requests to appoint an ED (HRMD) has not been heard too till this date.

d)        Recruitment of officers on contract basis and non filling up of vacancies at the junior management level for last two years is also highly resented by NBOA and officers.  Promotion process for various cadres has not been initiated for last two years.   More than 400 posts of officers are lying vacant - out of that 250+ are due to not promoting the officers and remaining due to non recruitment at base level.  Still Contract recruitment is on.

e)       Officers are being continuously harassed and victimized, through financial penalties, eviction from the quarters (though bank has provided 70-100 quarters at Mumbai to BoB & UCO bank at a rent of Rs.5000-7000 pm), punishment transfers and charge sheeting on frivolous and trivial issues.  Even the officers who have been exonerated in the disciplinary proceedings have been punished totally ignoring the enquiry report.

f)        We have also come to know that NABARD is in the process of selling its prime real estate assets. Such a step is unwarranted as the property can be easily utilized for earning recurring hefty income without disposing it at all. Non setting up of NRMC at Kolkata , in spite of an earlier Board level decision and even after laying of the foundation stone has led to levying of hefty penalty on NABARD towards ‘change in land usage pattern’. NABARD is in the print media for all wrong reasons these days and it has resulted in tainting and bruising of NABARDs' hitherto impeccable image.

We, therefore solicit your kind and positive intervention so that the above concerns are taken care off at the highest levels.  

Thanking you

Yours faithfully

  

(Dr. D S Chauhan)

General Secretary