As the plot behind the PNB scam thickens, the government is considering dissolving the Banks Board Bureau (BBB) headed by Vinod Rai who is set to retire in March, a highly placed source in the finance ministry told Express. “The government is considering dissolving it. The chairman is retiring in March; it will be done after that.

The government will take many strong reformative steps, even if it means dismantling institutions which had not kept checks and balances,” the official said hinting that the role of BBB had been disappointing. The Banks Board Bureau, an autonomous body under the aegis of Department of Financial Services, was set up in 2016 to help the government in selection of top executives of PSBs and enforce a code of conduct and ethics for managerial personnel.

For this role, the government roped in Rai, former Comptroller and Auditor General of India who blew the whistle on the 2G spectrum scam and whom Forbes had described as “a rare breed of civil servants who knows how to get work done in the government”. However, at BBB, Rai wasn’t really able to get things done.

For one, BBB was completely marginalised in the appointment of all the top-level executives including the head of Punjab National Bank. One BBB member, H N Sinor, even resigned after the board was bypassed when the government changed the top management of Bank of India and PNB. In the rejig, PNB chief Usha Ananthasubramanian was shifted to Allahabad Bank and Melwyn Rego, head of Bank of India, was sent to Syndicate Bank.

According to sources, this incident rattled Rai so much that he shifted his interest from banking to cricket. “The BBB was tasked to build a performance base database of senior management and board of directors of PSBs, which help the government in preparing a succession plan. The second one was technological upgradation and training of banking staff, including in the managerial level. Nothing happened and he (Rai) failed to meet expectations,” an IBA member said. #casansaar (Source - NewIndiaExpress)