..is a C.A. Yes.. the Chartered Accountant. And who else fears him the most but the banker. Let me narrate a small experience. Since the day I took charge of my branch, I have been particular in reading the daily newspaper, trying to catch the pulse of my city & the country as a whole. Day after day, there were huge SARFAESI notices issued by notable banks, prominent amont them - Bank of Baroda. By the way, for the ignorant, SARFAESI is a revolutionary act enabling the bank to secure the debtor's assets, without the interference or intervention of a Civil Court. The act is quite sweeping in its very nature. There was surely something very wrong in the fact that such huge number of bad debts have piled up on a bank. Then one fine day, a C.A came to meet me in the branch. He befriended me and tried to impress upon me that he has a very good client base & that he can ensure the growth in my advances portfolio just the way I wanted. Since he thought that I am game to his plans, he started confiding in me somethings that rang an alarm. He, very proudly said that his other C.A friends are mainly responsible for the growth in the advances portfolio of Bank of Baroda. I wonder if these same C.A's were responsible for the increasing bad debts of the bank.
Look at the large sums which have turned bad. They range from 20 lakhs to 120 crores. Is it possible, that in the normal life-cycle of a bank, so many loans will turn bad within such a short time span? It is - if those loans were advanced on the basis of fudged & forged balance sheets of the borrower. Believe it or not, some Chartered Accountants have made loan syndication a part of their profession - probably because their principal job does not pay them well. And this is one of the most freaky things I have come across in my life. Imagine, a branch manager, like me, trying to prevent his branch from falling prey to frauds, is being preyed upon by spineless C.A's, trying to extract a loan from a bank for a borrower whose main intention is to decamp with the loan amount. And trust me, C.A's are actively & willfully conniving with willful defaulters.
This raises a serious question on the job prospects of a C.A. The profession of C.A was created to audit a firm's balance sheet so that the balance sheet reflects the true state of affairs. However, I find many C.A's in my city doing exactly the opposite. This also raises a serious question on the picture of job creation in our country. If an honourable profession like C.A is going to dogs, what can we expect of other professions? Do we not have the Satyam scam in our history books ? Could the books of Satyam Ltd have been cooked up without the active involvement of the on-roll or empanelled C.A's of the firm? This also speaks of gross underemployment among C.A's, otherwise why will they go out of their way to liasion actively with bank managers hungry for business & sinister borrowers. I know of a customer, who will call up his C.A at the slightest jitter of getting caught by the ever-vigilant bank manager. I also know of customers, who may not even know the basics of economy, but will know handy tips provided by a C.A on how to trick a banker. Time has come when both C.A's & bankers should stop generating unethical business at the cost of their dignity & at the cost of public money. I will be writing about this issue in a more methodical manner, in one of my next blogs.
Look at the large sums which have turned bad. They range from 20 lakhs to 120 crores. Is it possible, that in the normal life-cycle of a bank, so many loans will turn bad within such a short time span? It is - if those loans were advanced on the basis of fudged & forged balance sheets of the borrower. Believe it or not, some Chartered Accountants have made loan syndication a part of their profession - probably because their principal job does not pay them well. And this is one of the most freaky things I have come across in my life. Imagine, a branch manager, like me, trying to prevent his branch from falling prey to frauds, is being preyed upon by spineless C.A's, trying to extract a loan from a bank for a borrower whose main intention is to decamp with the loan amount. And trust me, C.A's are actively & willfully conniving with willful defaulters.
This raises a serious question on the job prospects of a C.A. The profession of C.A was created to audit a firm's balance sheet so that the balance sheet reflects the true state of affairs. However, I find many C.A's in my city doing exactly the opposite. This also raises a serious question on the picture of job creation in our country. If an honourable profession like C.A is going to dogs, what can we expect of other professions? Do we not have the Satyam scam in our history books ? Could the books of Satyam Ltd have been cooked up without the active involvement of the on-roll or empanelled C.A's of the firm? This also speaks of gross underemployment among C.A's, otherwise why will they go out of their way to liasion actively with bank managers hungry for business & sinister borrowers. I know of a customer, who will call up his C.A at the slightest jitter of getting caught by the ever-vigilant bank manager. I also know of customers, who may not even know the basics of economy, but will know handy tips provided by a C.A on how to trick a banker. Time has come when both C.A's & bankers should stop generating unethical business at the cost of their dignity & at the cost of public money. I will be writing about this issue in a more methodical manner, in one of my next blogs.
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