PNB transfers 18,000 employees after CVC order

Punjab National Bank (PNB) has transferred close to 18,000 employees, or 25% of its total staff, after the Rs 11,000 crore alleged scam came to light at its Mumbai branch, bank employees union National Organisation of Bank Workers claimed on Wednesday.

The mass transfers come following an order of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) asking the banks to transfer employees who have completed required number of years in a branch. The CVC on Monday directed all the public sector banks to transfer the officers who have completed three years in a branch as on December 31, 2017.

As per Central Vigilance Commission guidelines, all officers have to be rotated every three years.

"No officer should be retained in the same post for a period in excess of three years and in the same station (municipal limits) for more than five years," according to the bank transfer policy. The clerical staff should to be transferred every five years, as per the policy.

Though the PNB did not confirm the numbers, it said such transfers were a routine matter.

The PNB has a total of about 70,000 employees in its 7,000 branches across the country.

Other banks are also likely to follow suit. Most banks have started preparing a list of the employees due for a transfer, bank sources said.

The fact that the accused former deputy manager Gokulnath Shetty remained at the PNB's Brady House Branch for seven years has raised many questions about the banks flouting the transfer norms. Shetty alone issued more than 100 letters of undertaking (LoUs) to the billionaire jewellery designer Nirav Modi and his companies accused of defrauding the bank.

Reacting to the mass transfers, the bank union leader Ashwani Rana, however, said that it was not right to transfer the employees just before the crucial closing for banks in March. They should have waited till March-end, he said. "Employees on getting promotion are transferred during April-July. Now they will have to again face transfers in a couple of months," he said.

TIME TO PACK BAGS

• As per the guidelines, all officers have to be rotated every three years
   
• Though the PNB did not confirm the numbers, it said such transfers were a routine matter