#NPA #ICICI #AXIS #RBI #CBI

Were  these “   honest  “ decisions  ?

Over the past few years , CEO / MD of leading banks ( both public and private ) , have taken decisions to advance thousands of crore of rupees to industrialists / businessmen

Some Rs 9 lakh*crore of these loans have now turned into NPA and questions are being asked :

“  Were these honest decisions  ?  Were these decisions taken without any conflict of interest ? “

Now , we know that thousands of years ago , even Sati Sita’s fidelity to Lord Ram was doubted !

So , no matter how “ honest “ were those decisions by the bankers , public may have a “ perception “ of dishonesty

And SEBI / RBI / ED / CBI / Board of Directors of concerned banks / external auditors etc , have to conduct detailed / searching investigations , to establish the “ honesty “ ( - or otherwise ) of those decisions

That process has to be gone through

But it would have greatly helped those CEO / MD , had they filed an “ DECISION DOCUMENT “ ( one for each loan ), as suggested in my following 4 YEAR old blog ( sent as email to all Cabinet Ministers )

21 June  2014

  

To err is human

To forgive is divine ( provided it was a honest error )

All of us keep making errors , all the time

But rarely same " mistake " twice

Often , decisions taken at a point of time , turn out to be " poor " , with passage of time

Reasons are simple :

*  We never have all the information - relevant to the problem we are trying to solve –

    available with us , at the time of taking a decision

*  Even when most of such relevant info is available , we may not have the capacity /

    competence to " process " such info

*  As humans , we have our biases / prejudices , based on our previous experiences ,

    which influence our decisions

*  Quite often , and often against our own better evaluation / judgement of a given

   situation , we are wrongly influenced by our peers / bosses / subordinates or even

   voters - all of whom have different expectations / vested interests !

*  Additional - and more relevant - information surfaces , AFTER we have taken a

    decision ( happens all the time  !  )

To encourage Babus and Ministers to take FAST decisions , Narendra Modi must insist that they carefully " Record " on the files :

*    What info / data he wished was available for a better decision

*    What different " views / opinions " were presented to him for consideration

*    What " Data / Views " he would have obtained if he had more time

*    Who all , the decision might offend

*    What is the likely " Cost " of postponing that decision

 

And finally a declaration :

*    This decision is not likely to benefit any of my near relatives / friends , directly or

      Immediately

After all of this , if the decision appears to be " Wrong " in hindsight , it must be " forgiven " and treated as an honest error

To err is human  !


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18  April  2018

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs