Staff Reporter :
A separate pay structure for the employees of state-owned commercial banks (SOBs) would be announced soon, said Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith while addressing the annual conference of Janata Bank Limited (JBL) in a city hotel on Thursday.
“The Finance Ministry has approved the pay structure after discussion with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. All procedures in this regard are at the final stage,” said the Minister
State Minister for Finance MA Mannan and Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the JBL SM Aminur Rahman also spoke.
Among others, Chairman of the bank Professor Dr Abul Barkat, directors of the boards and managers of branches were present.
Referring to offloading shares of the nationalized banks in the market, Muhith said, “Private sector’s participation in the state-owned banks would be increased to infuse dynamism in financial sector and the work will be done during the tenure of the present government.”
“We’re looking for introduction of the private sector participation in the Rupali Bank to this end,” said the Minister.
Muhith candidly agreed there are cases of forgery and theft in the country’s banking sector saying that the government has been adopting manifold strategies to curb the fraudulent activities in financial sector.
“I wouldn’t tell there is no forgery and theft in the banking sector. We’re taking steps against those. And of course, the steps are gradually intensifying,” Finance Minister added.
Muhith said the government has formulated many policies for inspection of financial institutions especially after the Hall Mark scam.
“Those policies are playing a supportive role in checking the anomalies in the financial sector,” he said.
“Whenever we found any forgery or theft in the banking sector we dealt with those with responsibility,” he said.
He said the government’s monitoring mechanism would be continued in the coming days.
The government is trying hard to make the recruitment and management process of public banks competitive with commercial banks. “Our main objective is to turn the banking sector into an ideal institution,” said the Finance Minister.
JBL CEO Aminur Rahman mentioned various positive sides of the bank.
“Increasing net profit last year, contribution of the bank to the government exchequer, increasing share, bringing down interest to almost single digit and investment growth were the success of the bank, ” he said.
