Audit report on Basic Bank: Missive irregularities in recruitment

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Special Correspondent :
Authorities of Basic Bank have appointed 1173 of its staff resorting to massive irregularities and bribery.
Of the recruited staff, 801 are officers and 371 office assistants, guard, messengers and drivers.
Many of them even appointed without publilishing formal job vacancy notice in newspapers. Besides, the bank authorities did not held formal written test and VIVA during their appointment, according to an audit report of the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).
The CAG, in its report, mentioned several irregularities in the appointement process and termed those as ‘unprecedented.’ The report also cited evidence of misappropriation of money in the name of payroll.
The appointment was made during the tenure of the bank’s controversial chairman Sheikh Abdul Hye Bachchu, who led the basic bank’s board of directors for two terms from 2009 to mid 2014.
One Shahadat Hossain submitted a normal CV on December 23, 2012 and on the very next day he was appointed as an officer of the bank.
Twenty-eight more people were also appointed as officers in the same process on the recommendation of the then Managing Director (MD) of the bank Kazi Faqurul Islam.
Officer Pankaj Chandra Das joined the state-owned Basic Bank leaving his job from BRAC Bank. He was joined on July 23, 2013. However, he was given a clearance from the BRAC Bank on September 8, 2013. He was appointed in the bank without any scrutiny and even his age had expired too.
He was appointed following recommendation of the former MD.
Sadrina Irene was appointed as Assistant Officer on the day of MD’s recommendation on July 23, 2013, though Assistant Officer Raseul Azam submitted a CV on her behalf on July 24, 2013.
Irene got the appointment the day before the submitting of her CV to bank authorities.
The CAG report stated that 13 persons were appointed to Basic Bank without notice of appointment. They got appointed before they submitted their applications.
For example, Tania Sultana submitted her CV on April 4, 2014. But she was appointed on March 27, a month before the submission of her application. Besides, the assistant officers Zahirul Haque, Mahfuza Begum, Aminur Rahman, Sohagh Hazra, Ranjit Roy, Monoyara Khatun, Mahidul Islam, MM Qayyum Hasan, Ayoti Nahar, Md. Nizam Mia, Salma Akram and Shanita Yasmin were appointed before the submission of their applications.
The audit report said that 29 more Junior Officers were appointed in the same process.
The bank also appointed a total of 372 people to the post of Office Assistant, Guard, Messengers and Driver violating the recruitment rules of the bank.
They were recruited in the so-called scouting system. Later, they were appointed to branches in different places of the country, including Dhaka.
The audit report also found irregularities in promotion of the bank officers.
It also said that the then bank authorities had given additional salaries to several hundred officers and employees through nepotism.
An anonymous Basic Bank official told The New Nation that there was no place in the world to get appointment before applying and written test. But it happened in Basic Bank.
“Inefficient and inexperienced people having poor educational background got jobs through bribery and nepotism. Even people had more than one third class in their accademic carriers got appointed. The former chairman Sheikh Abdul Hye Bachchu appointed them abusing his official power,” he added.
Earlier, financial irregularities of Basic Bank, a state-owned specialized bank, hogged media headlines as the central bank in its investigation found Tk 3,500 crore loan scam at different branches of the bank.
Majority of the loans were approved by the then chairman Bachchu against forged documents without proper scrutiny and collateral.
The central bank removed the then Basic Bank Managing Director Kazi Faqurul Islam. But the authorities are yet to take action again the former chairman of the bank.
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