In my earlier blog post of June ’09 titled Road to Manantoddy, (now renamed Mananthavady) I had written about my first trip to Wynaad District, Kerala state in India. Quitting from the Government service in 1982, I was on the way to Mananthavady to join as Rural Development Officer in a nationalised Bank.
The Bank had only one branch in Wynaad District and it was covering the whole district. The picture given to me about Wynaad was that it was a popular punishment placement for government officials and was a difficult place to live and work. Had it not been for the then Manager of the branch, I would have indeed got frustrated. From day one he took good care of me and guided me well. Incidentally he happened to be of my fraternity – a graduate in Agriculture and that was another reason for the proximity. He was the one who patiently taught me banking and initiated me into rural banking. A native of the Lakshadweep Islands, he was a devote Muslim, an altruistic person and big hearted when it came to helping poor customers of the bank. My seeds for Microfinance were in fact sown in this branch despite being plagued with incessant problems.
As days went on it became difficult to work in the branch although the agriculture loan portfolio was being taken care of very well by my team. The Mananthavady branch of the Bank was in a way a jinxed branch. On the first day of my joining the branch I was informed by the Manager about his predecessor’s corrupt practices. The former Manager had landed in jail for his nefarious activities and investigation of the case was still in vogue when I joined the branch.
One year passed of and even before dust could gather on the files of the case, another case of embezzlement of bank’s money by a Senior Clerk came to the fore. This person had been discounting fictitious foreign instruments and had been siphoning off bank’s funds for over a year. The case was first detected by the bank’s inspectors during the regular annual inspection. But it was a bit too late as the culprit had bolted off into oblivion by that time. In a major set back to the branch, the second case was also handed over to the same central agency for investigation.
Two cases at the same time was a bit too much for my Manager to take it lying down. With little moral support and logistics coming in from the headquarters for the branch my friend started showing signs of a grind down of his spirits. As a person doing namaaz religiously five times a day and with an impeccable and unsullied sincerity he started showing signs of withdrawal. By this time a third case of embezzlement also surfaced wherein a Clerk had siphoned off an amount.
With all these three cases and a Nelson’s Eye treatment meted out on the branch by the headquarters forced my friend to take the extreme step of quitting from the position of Manager. It came as a bolt from the blue for most of us in the branch. For me it was a personal loss.
The onus of running the branch then fell on the Assistant Manager who had been desisting from taking up Manager’s position for quite sometime despite his seniority and experience. He took charge of the branch reluctantly with assurance coming from headquarters about immediate support from them. I had to take up the role of joint custodian as there were no officers between him and me. As days went by the assurance vanished in thin air and the Assistant Manager developed cold feet. The recalcitrant attitude of the head office about such a serious matter drew flak from all the staff of the branch. As an officer on probation I was under training and just learning general banking, although the rural finance portfolio was taken care of well by me and my team, I was piqued by the fact that a joint custodian’s responsibility was entrusted on me so early. Just as I was contemplating on the pros and cons of this additional responsibility rammed on me, the Assistant Manager “fell ill” and applied for a fifteen day leave. He handed over the responsibility of running the branch to me and went home.
Driven to the corner I had no other options but to take the responsibility. For a person who had always aspired to join the army, this was like a call to go to the war front ! I get goose pimples even now when I think of that bolt from the blue responsibility. It was the year 1984 and we did not have cell phones and computers. The first job I did was to shoot a one page hard hitting telegram to the head office informing them that a junior officer on probation had been entrusted with the work of running a branch, which had three cases being investigated, and needed new officers to be posted immediately. The Nelson’s Eye attitude of the headquarters seemed to go on undeterred with absolutely no response. I had to run the branch for three months before a Manager was posted. Despite the pressure on me I was able to run the branch without any major problems. The fact however remains that the bank took almost six months to find an alternate Manager for my good friend!
My friend’s predecessor, the former Manager, had a stint in jail and was dismissed from job. He is reported to have ruined his life after that. The Senior Clerk was reported to have been absconding for about two years and finally was caught one day. His life also got ruined after that. The Clerk who got involved in the third fraud case was given a reprieve and was transferred to Cannanore in Kerala. As committing fraud was probably in his DNA he was caught red handed when trying to cheat a lady customer of that branch and was summarily sacked from his job.
As days went on it became difficult to work in the branch although the agriculture loan portfolio was being taken care of very well by my team. The Mananthavady branch of the Bank was in a way a jinxed branch. On the first day of my joining the branch I was informed by the Manager about his predecessor’s corrupt practices. The former Manager had landed in jail for his nefarious activities and investigation of the case was still in vogue when I joined the branch.
One year passed of and even before dust could gather on the files of the case, another case of embezzlement of bank’s money by a Senior Clerk came to the fore. This person had been discounting fictitious foreign instruments and had been siphoning off bank’s funds for over a year. The case was first detected by the bank’s inspectors during the regular annual inspection. But it was a bit too late as the culprit had bolted off into oblivion by that time. In a major set back to the branch, the second case was also handed over to the same central agency for investigation.
Two cases at the same time was a bit too much for my Manager to take it lying down. With little moral support and logistics coming in from the headquarters for the branch my friend started showing signs of a grind down of his spirits. As a person doing namaaz religiously five times a day and with an impeccable and unsullied sincerity he started showing signs of withdrawal. By this time a third case of embezzlement also surfaced wherein a Clerk had siphoned off an amount.
With all these three cases and a Nelson’s Eye treatment meted out on the branch by the headquarters forced my friend to take the extreme step of quitting from the position of Manager. It came as a bolt from the blue for most of us in the branch. For me it was a personal loss.
The onus of running the branch then fell on the Assistant Manager who had been desisting from taking up Manager’s position for quite sometime despite his seniority and experience. He took charge of the branch reluctantly with assurance coming from headquarters about immediate support from them. I had to take up the role of joint custodian as there were no officers between him and me. As days went by the assurance vanished in thin air and the Assistant Manager developed cold feet. The recalcitrant attitude of the head office about such a serious matter drew flak from all the staff of the branch. As an officer on probation I was under training and just learning general banking, although the rural finance portfolio was taken care of well by me and my team, I was piqued by the fact that a joint custodian’s responsibility was entrusted on me so early. Just as I was contemplating on the pros and cons of this additional responsibility rammed on me, the Assistant Manager “fell ill” and applied for a fifteen day leave. He handed over the responsibility of running the branch to me and went home.
Driven to the corner I had no other options but to take the responsibility. For a person who had always aspired to join the army, this was like a call to go to the war front ! I get goose pimples even now when I think of that bolt from the blue responsibility. It was the year 1984 and we did not have cell phones and computers. The first job I did was to shoot a one page hard hitting telegram to the head office informing them that a junior officer on probation had been entrusted with the work of running a branch, which had three cases being investigated, and needed new officers to be posted immediately. The Nelson’s Eye attitude of the headquarters seemed to go on undeterred with absolutely no response. I had to run the branch for three months before a Manager was posted. Despite the pressure on me I was able to run the branch without any major problems. The fact however remains that the bank took almost six months to find an alternate Manager for my good friend!
My friend’s predecessor, the former Manager, had a stint in jail and was dismissed from job. He is reported to have ruined his life after that. The Senior Clerk was reported to have been absconding for about two years and finally was caught one day. His life also got ruined after that. The Clerk who got involved in the third fraud case was given a reprieve and was transferred to Cannanore in Kerala. As committing fraud was probably in his DNA he was caught red handed when trying to cheat a lady customer of that branch and was summarily sacked from his job.
Those three fraud cases and the three month stint of running an ill fated branch still remain as a nightmare for me.
I had a chance to see where man’s greed and lust for money can lead to.
I worked in that ill fated branch for two more years before getting a transfer to yet another difficult place.
I had a chance to see where man’s greed and lust for money can lead to.
I worked in that ill fated branch for two more years before getting a transfer to yet another difficult place.
