IFIC officials boycott test for evaluation

Officials of International Finance Investment and Commerce Bank, popularly known as IFIC Bank, boycotted an evaluation test of the bank officials yesterday terming the exam demeaning.
They feared that they would lose their jobs after the test and the board of directors would then replace them with the board's chosen people.
The central bank has also asked the IFIC bank why it was taking such a test.
"It was very embarrassing for me to sit for such a test after working 15 years in the bank," said one of the officials who gathered at the Central Govt High School at Motijheel in Dhaka for the test.
Some 1,500 officials, below the rank of assistant vice-president, were asked to sit for the test, which was supposed to be held simultaneously at six divisional cities. Eshna Consulting Team was employed by the bank to conduct the test.
Like Dhaka, the test was boycotted in Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna, Sylhet and Barisal divisions.
Mohammad Lutfar Rahman, chairman of IFIC Bank, told The Daily Star that no employees would be fired. The test was for evaluating the skills of employees, he said.
"Outsiders ruined the scheduled test. We will take it later in Dhaka," he said.
IFIC was established in 1983 and before that it was a joint venture finance company of public and private sectors since 1976.
The government still has 32.75 percent stake in the bank. Sponsor directors own 11.42 percent and the rest is owned by the public.
The bank has 87 branches and SME service centres across the country and employs nearly 3,000 people.
According to officials at different levels in the bank, the board of directors and particularly the chairman decided to recruit new people replacing present employees.
They said the chairman accordingly appointed a consulting firm to evaluate the skills and performance of the employees.
"It has created a bad impression of us to our family members. The test raises questions about our abilities," said an official of the bank in Chittagong Zone.
"There was no evaluation of the employees in the last 27 years. We don't know who has what qualities," said the chairman. "We can't even promote people without proper evaluation," he said.
He said earlier two attempts of evaluation by previous boards were also foiled.
"This is a first generation private bank, but runs poorer than a third generation bank," he claimed.
The chairman vowed to take the test again. He said evaluation at the top levels have been completed. Yesterday's test was for the last four levels of employees.
However, the bank's human resources development programme contradicts somewhat to the chairman's statement about the employees' abilities and the bank's performance.
According to the website of the bank, it has an academy, the oldest of the kind in Bangladesh. It is an in-house training centre equipped with a professional library, modern training aids and professional faculty.
About the academy the bank said: During its 23 years of existence, the academy not only conducted courses, workshops and seminars as required by the bank, but it also organised training programmes for banks of the Maldives, Nepal and Oman International Exchange LLC. In addition, the academy has also the credit of organising the system for the Bank of Maldives.
At the end of 2009, the total asset of the bank was valued at Tk 6,290 crore, which was Tk 4,573 crore a year ago.
A share of IFIC Bank was traded in the Dhaka Stock Exchange on Thursday at Tk 1,106.