The Central Bureau of Investigation has exposed major irregularities in the recruitment of sweepers/messengers in Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) headquartered in Chennai. Based on a specific input that many candidates managed to get appointment using fake certificates, the CBI’s Anti-Corruption Branch here registered a case and conducted searches on the bank’s establishments in different parts of Tamil Nadu last week, agency sources said on Wednesday.
The allegation is that the services of 951 persons working as daily-wage labourers in the bank for several years were regularised in 2010.
The educational qualification for the post of sweeper/messenger was a fail in the SSLC examination. However, many applicants who had actually passed the SSLC or Plus-Two examinations produced fake certificates claiming that they had failed in Standard X.
Suspended
A top office-bearer of IOB’s employees union was placed under suspension after he was named in the scam.
Preliminary enquiries revealed that many daily-wage workers had managed to get the appointment with the assistance of some union leaders, the sources said.
When contacted IOB Chairman and Managing Director M. Narendra said the bank had conducted an enquiry into the charges. About 60 employees who were found ineligible were terminated from service.
Since they had submitted fake certificates, the bank had given a complaint against them with the local police.
According to IOB General Manager (Human Resources) Indira Padmini, a few office-bearers of employees’ union who were allegedly involved in the irregularities were placed under suspension. However, they were reinstated later without prejudice to the process of enquiry and chargesheet.
“A report has been sent to the bank’s Vigilance Organisation in this regard. All documents pertaining to the recruitment have been shared with the CBI to facilitate their investigation. We are also conducting an in-depth enquiry into the matter,” Ms. Padmini said.
