The Bhutan National Bank Limited’s (BNBL) forgery case pertaining to the recruitment of staff by the bank’s management based on alleged forged documents was forwarded to the Office of Attorney General yesterday for prosecution. The police investigating the case found out that 12 people allegedly forged their documents to apply for the post of support staff.
In April 2017 and February 2018, the bank’s management announced the vacancy for the post of support staff through print media. A total of over 500 applicants applied in both the year. Later, 15 staff were recruited for various posts. The criteria required the applicant to have a class VIII pass qualification with 50 per cent for 2017 recruitment and 55 per cent for 2018 recruitment. The selection criteria were also based on viva. However, the bank’s Executive Management Committee headed by the former CEO later received an anonymous letter stating about the forged mark sheets. The bank then made six of their employees out of 15 staff who worked for one and a half year to resign from services with benefits instead of being terminated. The BNBL had paid retirement benefits amounting to over Nu 153,000 for six staff in contravention to the Human Resource Policy Manual 2016. The bank instead of terminating services of those staff who had been recruited based on forged documents had asked the employees to put up resignation letters, which were then accepted and employees relieved from service with benefits.
Four resigned without service benefits since they were in probation period. The case came into the limelight after the Royal Audit Authority (RAA) conducted their annual auditing in the bank. The RAA report initially reported that five employees were still serving with the Bank.
However, police investigated the case and asked for statements from 15 people involved and six members of the Executive Management Committee of the bank who were responsible for retiring the staff. In the due process of investigation by the police, it was found that 12 people from the 15 recruited allegedly forged their documents. Four people are still working with the bank. While three of them are said to have valid documents, one who has allegedly forged document is still with the bank.
As per the penal code of Bhutan, the probable charges for the Executive Management Committee is official misconduct and failure to report a crime.
On the other hand, 12 people who have forged their documents will fall under forgery.
The case was forwarded by the Anti Corruption Commission to the police.
Samten Dolkar
