Page 192 - A Banker Down the Rabbit Hole

Now I asked my officer to go after details of the other entry for USD 5400.
The officer tried hard to trace the voucher a base paper or document on
which the transaction is recorded first and signed in token of approval
by the Junior Manager and the Expatriate Manager of the department.
But she could not find these records for that particular date of
transaction. I persisted in follow up with her but she reported the same
status week after week. Meanwhile, I completed the three years tenure
of overseas posting. The batch of new Managers to replace the existing
Managers at overseas centers had been selected and was ready to be
sent. I got back to India and was posted at an Exceptionally Large (EL)
metropolitan branch there.

After about three and a half years working at this branch, I got an
opportunity to shift to Singapore as a CFO of a Singapore based company.
After leaving the bank on voluntary retirement at the age of 46, I joined
this company. By the time, I left India; I had made all efforts to receive
all my provident fund and gratuity dues from the bank. Fortunately, I got
all the dues settled and paid to me. After about three months of my
shifting with family to Singapore, I got a message from one of my friends
in this EL Branch that the branch had received a telex message reading,

"An error of wrong payment of USD 5400 has been detected on the part
of (the named officer) while he was posted at Hong Kong Branch. The
branch should hold all his retirement dues till an enquiry into this matter
gets completed."

It was a rude shock to know about this development. Though I had
received my retirement dues already, there was some amount of pension
payment being made by the bank into my account every month. I
apprehended that pension payment may be stopped by the bank if I did
not clear my name. I enquired the details of the transaction from an ex-
colleague posted at Hong Kong branch. The amount of USD 5400 and
date of transaction reminded me clearly that this was the same
transaction that was detected in non-reconciled transactions due to my

A Banker down the Rabbit Hole | 189