Reserve Bank Favours Only Need-Based Recruitment

The Calcutta office of the Reserve Bank of India alone has over 240 vacancies at the clerical level but the apex bank has refused to fill them up.

In a confidential letter sent to RBI's Calcutta branch in early July by the RBI's Department of Expenditure and Budgetary Control (DEBC), Mumbai, the branch has been instructed to redeploy excess manpower judiciously.

The letter states, with a view to contain/bring down the establishment expenditure, it has been decided that all offices/departments of the bank should review their manpower requirements in the light of changes in information technology, communication system, EDP facilities and redeploy the excess manpower judiciously.

 

No new proposals for staff will be entertained by the bank and all requirements for additional staff should be met by redeployment of the existing staff, without adding to the bank's workforce. RBI is trying to act upon the recommendations of the Fergusson committee report prepared by the audit firm AF Fergusson.

The report calls for a 15 per cent reduction in the existing level of workforce for the bank to function at optimum level.

Sources, however, say this is against the recommendations of the Goiporia committee report which calls for improvement in consumer services which is a direct result of scarcity of manpower.

Customer services have been severely hampered for want of staff

.The public debt office of RBI (Calcutta), for instance, has about 30,000 interest warrants and 3,000 10 per cent

Relief Bonds awaiting issue to subscribers though the time limit has expired.

A major complaint of senior union representatives is the manner in which the matter of non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) is being handled. Of a total of 40,000 non-banking financial companies in the country, only 1,000 such companies are monitored by the Reserve Bank.

This leaves ample scope for fly-by-night operators to swindle small investors. By filling up vacancies in the department of financial companies, the central bank would be able to bring more non-banking financial companies under it's purview, says Samir Ghose, general secretary of the All-India Reserve Bank Employees' Association (AIRBEA).

The department of supervision is also short of staff. Adequate follow-up action is not being taken on inspection reports. Ghose feels this is one of the prime reasons for the regular banking scams occurring in the country.

The All-India Reserve Bank Employees' Association has called for a nation-wide strike on September 9 to press for their demands. The All-India Bank Employees' Association, All-India Bank Officers' Confederation and the Bank Employees Federation of India have extended their full support to the cause of the All-India Reserve Bank Employees' Association.