Page 193 - A Banker Down the Rabbit Hole

efforts only during fag end of my tenure at Hong Kong about three and
a half years ago.

I enquired from the then Branch Head whether he had verified from the
voucher, the basic record of a transaction that I had signed the voucher
approving the related transaction. The great man had not taken the
trouble to take a basic step of checking as to who had authorized that
transaction. He committed a blunder in attributing the mistake to myself
and providing my name to Head Office for fixing responsibility of this
lapse. The transaction related to the period when I was working in Export
Trade Finance Department. The Branch Head tried to trace the basic
records but could not. They might have misplaced or lost the records.

The transaction was either related to the realization proceeds of export
bills sent for collection or maturity proceeds of Foreign Currency Fixed
Deposit from an Indian branch. Then I suggested them to check the
source document of such entries of payments on account of return of
funds / maturity proceeds of foreign currency deposits kept in India by
the NRIs / PIOs residing in overseas centers. This was called Phila Report
in this bank branch parlance and was a daily statement of debits and
credits into our account with Philadelphia International Bank, New York.
The report contained all credits on account of realization of export bills
sent for collection and maturity proceeds of fixed deposits kept in India
by our local customers.

They checked the copy of report in Export Department and could not find
it. Other possibility was the transaction related to foreign deposit toward
remittances from India where a Xerox copy of this Phila report might be
found in records of that department. I had a colleague in Hong Kong
branch at that time who had worked with me in India. He worked a lot
in tracing the records. The copy of Phila report for that day was found in
deposit department files. Scrutiny disclosed that the transaction under
investigation was authorized by another Expatriate Manager as it related

190 | A Banker down the Rabbit Hole