The bankers issued their warning after Nepal Bankers Association (NBA) on Tuesday decided to ´protect the image of banks´ and converged on protesting ´possible malafide´ action against bank staff by the revenue investigation authority.[break]
DRI, which has been investigating the cases since five months back, has concluded that eight shady traders based in Birgunj were largely behind the siphoning off of IC totalling 1.24 billion (Rs 1.98 billion) from the banking system by producing fake import documents from customs.
As existing norms make bank staff liable for cross-checking the authenticity of documents while issuing payment drafts, DRI, in its report to the Ministry of Finance, has indicated the possible involvement of the staff of nine banks in the racket.
The banks through which the racket operated include Citizens Bank International, NIC Bank, Everest Bank, Nepal SBI Bank, Nepal Bank Limited, Siddhartha Bank, Laxmi Bank, Nepal Investment Bank and Nepal Bangladesh Bank.
In this connection, DRI last week completed recording the statements of bank staff and the banks as well.
“We do not know what exactly the findings of the DRI are. But what we know for sure is staff of the banks issued the payments based on the customs documents. If the nefarious traders managed to deceive them, that does not prove they are guilty,” said NBA President Ashok Rana, defending NBA´s decision.
Other bankers, who preferred to remain unnamed, said that if the IC misappropriations took place it is because of laxity at the customs offices. “Hence, DRI should first punish the customs staff and customs agents, instead of attacking bank staff.”
Officials at DRI, meanwhile, expressed surprise at the reaction from bankers. “The case is still under investigation and we are still interrogating the nefarious traders. In such a context, the bankers, in issuing a warning instead of supporting the investigations, are only exhibiting immaturity,” commented a senior DRI official.
DRI had traced the IC misappropriations when it raided Birgunj-based firms Laxmi Traders, Rehan Traders, Maha Laxmi Enterprises, Shyam Galla Store, GS Traders, Maxwell Computers, Digital World and Jay Mata Di International.
Further investigations disclosed that they had managed to siphon off IC totalling 1.24 billion from 15 branches of nine banks by producing 2,341 fake customs declaration forms.
Nepal Rastra Bank, which carried out investigations of its own, has reported to DRI that the IC misappropriations took place mainly because the banks failed to adopt a Know Your Customer (KYC) approach-- keeping records of customer details -- leaving a loophole for the crooked to use bank staff for illegal purposes.
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