Page 230 - A Banker Down the Rabbit Hole

worked out based on total value of paid up stocks and book debts
declared by the borrower on last day of each month less the pre-decided
borrower's contribution called margin (say, 25%-30%). Every month, the
Drawing Power would change with the value of stocks declared less the
value of unpaid stocks.

Our objective of stock inspection was to ascertain the records of raw
material purchases and consumption for production to match with the
value of stocks declared by the customer on last day of the month. Of
course some adjustments needed to be made for raw material stored
having gone into production converting to stock in process and finished
goods and some finished stocks getting sold and moved out by the date
the bank conducted the inspection usually in the first week of the next
month.

No other bank officer appeared much interested in thorough inspection;
perhaps thinking that officer from leader of the consortium would do all
that in their presence. It was a surprise to me as our share was only 40%
and other 2 banks shared 60% limits among themselves. But I had learnt
to be vigilant. Time was a constraint. I asked the GM (Finance) to show
us the records like stock register showing date wise in and out quantities,
production records, records of sales and shipments date wise so that we
may work out the correctness of the value of stocks and their quantity
even though we do not know the value shown for each item. We told
him to show us invoices to verify the correct values of high value items
at least, during the remaining time.

The GM (Finance) went inside the office complex and took half an hour
to return. He told that the store Manager had fallen sick suddenly and
they were not able to access all the stock registers and files. This might
take long time to reconcile and we might not be satisfied with the results.
He apologized for this and assured that he would return the next day and
arrange everything and produce all the files and figures at our branch.
The other two officers did not object and I was left with no option but
to go with what he had proposed. But I found this very absurd that such
a large company and its set up would not be able to access records in

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