Bankers render financial services and as custodian of public money enjoy a special status in the society. But money being dear to all, there is an inherent risk of the bankers being the soft target by miscreants. They are always in the lookout for either induced mistakes from the bankers or insider information from some of the employees with doubtful integrity who may covertly compromise their official power for pecuniary / fringe benefits.

Modus operandi, intensity and frequency of attempts by the fraudsters are alarmingly increasing sharper with accelerating pace of growth, competition and penetration of e-banking which would provide better opportunity to them.

It is, therefore, essential to guard against fraudulent attempts by unsocial elements from outside and employees of doubtful integrity from inside, in the interest of the healthy growth & prosperity of the banks.

Vigilance being the integral part of the managerial functions plays a very crucial role in accomplishing the above objective. It creates awareness amongst each & every staff members about the urgency and the need of remaining alert for being vigilant all the time. We are always to follow the laid down systems, procedures & conduct rules which will protect the interest of the bank as well as employees’ own interest so that they may act without fear or favour with a view to enhance the level of managerial efficiency and effectiveness in the organization while going whole hog for achieving the set target. Vigilance functions also help in identifying fraud prone areas, fixing systematic deficiencies, if any, and taking pre-emptive action to prevent attempts by fraudsters. The advice of punitive action is based on the fact brought out in the investigation report, the advice on the Internal Advisory Committee (IAC) consisting of General Managers, out of the Disciplinary Proceedings and views of the Disciplinary Authority etc. Keeping the consistency in view, it is therefore necessary that due caution is exercised by dealing officials at each of these steps to be rationale, pragmatic and unbiased. Every loss either pecuniary or non-pecuniary terms occurring into the organization becomes the subject matter of a vigilance inquiry. While dealing with advance related cases, dealing officials should concentrate on unearthing violation of laid down systems & procedures leading to non creation of assets, total or partial depletion of assets, diversion of funds from the business cycle, reckless financing and consequential likely losses to the Bank.

Vigilance manual, a codified document covering all aspects of vigilance, is a vital tool in creating vigilance awareness amongst all staff members. The vigilance manual of the Bank has been revised with latest guidelines from CVC and other regulatory authorities which are aimed at raising the level of vigilance awareness for operational efficacy, purity and transparency.