MY LORD, THAT'S THE PRACTICE!

.

Service Story: "My LIC days!"

by

PG.POOCHERY

.

It was her humble submission that "insurance companies the world over do not disclose reasons for refusal of insurance".

It is a fact that they do canvass people for insurance. They grant insurance. When however they refuse to give insurance, they do not disclose their reasons.

But the Ombudsman was not convinced. He asked: "Why?"

Lady officer who represented the insurance company repeated her answer. " Sir, we don't disclose reasons".

"Why?"

"Sir, that is the practice!" This time she asserted with all the emphasis at her command.

But the Ombudsman ordered that the reason for refusal of insurance must be disclosed to the person seeking insurance. Finally insurance office relented and the reason was communicated.

Permission for communicating the reason was conveyed by the head office of the company. But they instructed the local office to intimate the ombudsman that as a special case the reason was being intimated. In future the reason won't be disclosed.

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Again, why?

Nobody had the reason. But they knew that it can't be said.

But what is the reason?

Again the same old answer: it can't disclosed.

.

Insurance companies collected many details from the applicant through the application for insurance. In addition they collected information from agents, doctors and others with the understanding that the same shall be kept as confidential. They are duty bound to keep this information as confidential. This is the reason why it is not disclosed.

Ombudsman should have been told that the company would be prepared to disclose the reasons to the ombudsman in a closed envelope but not to the applicant.  This is the usual practice in courts while dealing with confidential matters and such an argument would have been accepted by the Ombudsman also.  

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With the advent of institutions like ombudsman and consumer forums, the old method of refusing to act or to inform the customers is no more possible. These companies have to learn to invent new styles and exist.

*** ** *

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A PROMOTION INTERVIEW !

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SERVICE STORY: "My LIC days"

by PG.POOCHERY

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Mr. Murali, then our Senior Divisional Manager, gave me all encouragements. "When you attend the interview, you also show them all the work you have done," he told me when I met him before the interview.

Interview for promotion to the post of assistant administrative officer took place at Ernakulam Divisional Office. I had a couple of books to my credit. One was titled 'own your home scheme administration' which the southern zonal office had distributed to all the divisional offices. The other book was 'methods' which included a few work studies and designs for various schemes some of which were demonstrated in a seminar conducted at calicut.

Then there were articles published in 'yogakshema', official journal of central office published from Mumbai.

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Interview started at 10 am sharp. I was called in before noon. After the initial questions from members of the interview committee, I sought their permission to show materials I had taken with me.

One of the interview committee members said: "no".

Whereas all the candidates had just gone to the committee room without carrying anything with them, I had carried a brief case with me. Committee members could not guess why I took a brief case with me. They did not ask me. And so I couldn't tell them too.

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It appeared they didn't like my behavior.

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And perhaps for the arrogance of taking the materials to the committee room and seeking their permission to show the materials to them they placed me as the last man in a promotion list of about 249 candidates or so.

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The interview committee at Ernakulam perhaps cannot be blamed. Committee members were on tour. There is a culture with touring officers. They are in a mood to collect whatever is gifted to them from the local office. Second form of bribe is that they forget the purpose of their tour and misuse the occasion to visit places of their interest like temples during office hours (an unholy act!).

A car was waiting for the committee members. They did the 'unholy' act of hurriedly finishing the list of candidates for the whole day in the forenoon session itself and they had left for the holy act of visiting temples in the afternoon. Visit to temples was more important to them. They had little time to examine the claim of an employee in the area of organization improvements.

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In one of my personal visits to the zonal office, I met Mr. Sethi, zonal manager, to handover a copy of my journal 'initiative'. He asked me: "what happened in the interview?" Handing over a copy of 'initiative' to Mr. Sethi, I told him: "Sir, this is my reply!" He looked at the regional marketing manager sitting nearby and meaningfully smiled.

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An year later, I had been to zonal office at Chennai. Interview for promotion was being held there. The chairman of the interview committee was the secretary of m. s. department of central office.

He was the person who had invited me to visit central office. He had then asked me if I was interested in moving to Mumbai to continue my activities from there. When I replied in the negative, he said "whenever you feel like doing so, just give me a ring!"

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Had I attended the interview when he was the chairman of the interview committee, I had little doubt that I would have been number one in the list of candidates selected for promotion.

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Interview committee members at Ernakulam had no time to listen to me. They were in a hurry to finish the whole list by noon and visit the temples in the afternoon.

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So the god must have forgiven the interview committee members for their behavior!

*** ** *

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PROBLEMS ARE OPPORTUNITIES..

SERVICE STORY: MY LIC DAYS

BY PG.POOCHERY

.

This is CA Banch office of LIC. There were really good workers among the staff members. They were a helpless lot and often therefore did not speak out anything. Usually they kept quiet. In fact, they were on a platform waiting for the next available train to move out of the branch centre. That was once the pitiable condition of this branch office.

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Customers had real problems in this branch centre. They were not attended with proper care. They were required to visit the branch centre again and again. Inspite of these visits, there were no solutions. And naturally customer complaints increased to such proportions that an alarming situation was slowly developing at this centre.

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To begin with, therefore, customers were carefully dealt with. A register with a page allotted to every customer was introduced. What the customers were representing was noted on a particular page.

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Thus pages continued to be allotted to each customer. Within months it was found that there were customer complaints running to a couple of hundreds. Complaints continued to pour. When all the pages of a register were filled with complaints, an index to find out the customer's page was prepared.

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Slowly customers noted that their complaints were not getting solved but there was a system in the branch centre to note down their complaints.

And when a customer visited the centre again, the register was taken out and progress of work noted in the register was explained to him. All incoming official letters were carefully scanned through and the information was carefully noted on relevant pages. Instead of saying that something would be done, customers noted that there was a sincere attempt to do something to solve their problems. And they received correct details of what was being done.

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Time required for sittings with the customers could be shortened. There was no narration of the grievances again and again. Everything was noted down in the registers.

Since details were available in the registers, there was need only for noting what was required to be done. And so understanding with the customers improved. They realized that their complaints were carefully noted and when they visited the branch centre, at least they received a responsible reply.

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Side by side the erring lot among staff members were dealt with. No privileges were allowed to anybody. Some transparency in the working was brought out. In a particular case, severe punishments were awarded. An increment in the regular time scale of an employee was stopped for misbehaviour.

………..

Situation slowly changed. Discipline returned to the branch centre after many years. Managers and staff members had better understanding now.

Day after day, a sense of confidence was developing. In the ears there were murmurs: when there are problems there are solutions too.

......

A great management pundit said: "Problems are opportunities!"

*** ** *

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INLAND LETTER PREMIUM NOTICES - WHO IS THE AUTHOR OF THIS DESIGN ?

One day I received a telephone call. A friend of mine was at the other end. He told me his assistant was on leave and some work in the office was lying unattended as he could not do it on his computer. I could not believe his words.

In the late seventies, he was working as a Programmer in the Corporation. After many years of service, he had retired in the cadre of Branch Manager. Such a person should normally know computer operations.

That is a sad story of the Programmers in the Corporation. Some of them do have some knowledge for the reason that they have learned the lessons. But most others are not having any grasp of the subject, that is programming.

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I recently met a lady. She said that her husband is working as divisional engineer in the telephones department. But she added, to become an engineer (that too divisional engineer) one need not have any knowledge of any engineering subject.

The programmers in the corporation are also so. They merely coordinated the work of computer section and other departments and therefore they were merely coordinators.

The problem is that when you call them Programmers, a certain amount of ego develops. In fact they suffered from the fabulous designation the corporation has so generously given to them. They come to be regarded as the last word in computer matters. Therein lies the danger. Whatever they say is the final word. It is also that they do not like an outsider making a suggestion on matters relating to computers.

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At present premium notices are being sent in 'Inlands'. The corporation has saved hundreds of crores of Rupees by sending premium notices in Inlands. I think these changes were introduced in the Nineties.

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I had prepared this design for printing premium notices in Inlands and submitted to the Corporation. That was in the late Eighties that I prepared this design and published in my book 'Methods'. Since I submitted the book to Mr. Chidambaram, Managing Director personally while he was on a visit to Goa, I can confidently say that the design was available to the Corporation since then.

I travelled throughout the length and breadth of the country and met all computer specialists in the Corporation to examine the design. What I experienced was stiff resistance. They merely said it was not possible to introduce the change I requested for. What they said was that it was not technically feasible. Resistance was the same at central office or zone office. The design was discussed at the Zone Training Centre at Chennai and the 'computer specialist' there, who had come from EDP department of central office, had declared : it is not technically feasible.

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When I withdrew from the scene, you will find that the same very design was introduced by the Corporation. And the original author of the design is still groping in darkness. Maybe there is yet another author elsewhere in the Corporation. He must have taken away all the credits for this innovative work!

***

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WORK IS WORSHIP, NO QUESTIONS PLEASE!

SERVICE STORY: My LIC days.

PG.POOCHERY

Once again let me think aloud, what is 'efficiency'. It is the "competence or the ability to do something well or achieve a desired result without wasted energy or effort".

I found some competent managers at the local accounts department and also in a branch office.

They lacked initiative. Beyond doing a work in a particular manner, they could not give a thought why they have to do it.

Unfortunately, I would say, that is the organisational culture. Nobody is taught to ask questions why a particular work is done or not done?

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It was observed that an assistant was always busy in a department. He had bundles of cheques before him on his table. From morning to evening, he entered particulars of these cheques in a register and at the end of the day, these cheques were forwarded to the nearby branch office. At the branch office, the process of making entries was repeated.

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What was more surprising was the fact that these cheques were received every month from different government offices functioned in the branch area.

When the branch was opened, servicing of these policies was transferred from divisional office to the branch. Ever since it was the practice to forward the cheques for payment of premium from divisional office to the branch office.

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Believe it or not, let me tell you, this practice continued for about ten years.

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Nobody thought for a moment why these cheques were received at the divisional office. Again it was nobody's concern at the branch why these cheques were invariably received at the branch duly redirected from the divisional office. For all of them it was just a work. They had enough time to do it.

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One day that relevant question was asked: why these cheques were being received through the divisional office every month? Letters were written to offices which sent these cheques to the divisional office. There was follow up. Within a couple of months the problem was solved. Result: That poor man at the accounts department was rendered jobless.

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Had it not been for this initiative and intervention, this practice would have continued as an office procedure for years to come.

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And, say in the year 2050, a person visiting this department would have seen a poor assistant still engaged in writing in a register with bundles of cheques lying before him.

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And at the other end in the branch office, another assistant would have entered the same particulars of cheques in a register, without a remorse or a question being asked.

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After all, work is worship!

*** ** *

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AN ACTUARY'S VETO!

SERVICE STORY : My LIC days.

by PG.POOCHERY

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What is efficiency? Plain dictionary meaning of the word 'efficiency' is, the ability to do something well or achieve a desired result without wasted energy or effort.

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The new business department of life insurance corporation used to copy out certain details of insurance proposal papers on a form called 'review slip'. A decision will then be taken by the underwriter and recorded on the review slip. This is an efficient practice continued in the corporation since its inception.

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It was sometime in the late seventies, I raised the question why these details are being copied out on this review slip for taking a decision? It was the practice in the erstwhile insurance companies to procure business through its business centres all over India and to send the same to the head offices for final decision or 'underwriting' as it is known in insurance parlance.

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At the head offices, these papers were underwritten by such important persons like managing directors or actuaries or top management level officers. It was difficult for them to go through each and every detail of these proposal papers and take a decision. Moreover there was also language problem since some of the proposal papers were in local languages.

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It was therefore the practice in these offices to take out important details necessary for underwriting and prepare a review slip for facilitating the decision making process. It was practically difficult for these important persons to scan through each and every proposal papers to arrive at a decision. For the reason that even there were proposal papers in vernacular also, it was found necessary to prepare a review slip in English at the procurement stage itself and send the same to the head offices.

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This review slip was therefore an inevitable part of the office system. But then, many years passed by. These private insurance companies were nationalised. More and more divisional and branch offices were opened. The work of underwriting was transferred from head offices to the local divisional offices. And from divisional offices to branch offices. There was complete transformation.

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From managing directors and actuaries, the work was transferred to lower level officers in divisional offices. And finally when the work was decentralised to branch offices, underwriting work came to be handled at the clerical level.

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Even higher grade assistants demanded review slips for underwriting purposes. Only when the details are rewritten on review slips, he would underwrite. Maybe on an average such an assistant received two or three or five or ten proposal papers daily. Even with the time required for preparing review slips, it was possible to go through actual details on the original proposal papers itself and note down his decision then and there itself. The only requirement was the provision of sufficient space somewhere on the proposal paper, preferably on front page itself.

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Then I designed a proposal-cum-review slip. When this proposal paper is used, there was no need to prepare a review slip. I prepared a book titled 'methods' which included this proposal-cum-review slip along with several other suggestions for work improvement.

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On an invitation facilitated by Mr. Chidambaram, Managing Director, I visited central office at Mumbai. There I had discussion with management systems department and actuary. Actuary Mr. Ramakrishnan was of the opinion that as long as all the questions in the proposal form are retained, he had no objection to the proposed changes.

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Then it was decided to bring about the desired changes. The secretary of the concerned department and his officers were present when the details of the circular letter were discussed. I was also a proud man to be present in that meeting at the central office. Eventually the circular was issued to divisional offices.

***

I returned to Calicut. I had a discussion with the local division head. In the meanwhile he had also received the circular from the central office. To my dismay I found that this proposal form in the revised format was not introduced at all at Calicut. For sometime it was the excuse that there was huge stock of old forms. Thereafter I didn't hear any reason at all. But the neighbouring divisions had introduced the new method of completion of proposals.

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That was a prejudice of a local division head. Who am I to discuss such matters with Central Office and get a circular issued? Great things should come through great people in the organisation. Actuaries thought, such ideas should come from actuaries only.

This division head had passed a few papers of this actuarial course. Perhaps he also thought that it was his prerogative to think aloud on such subjects. And surely not an employee working under him!

*

I only wondered what would have been the plight of the division if the division head had completed the whole actuarial course!

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MR. CHAIRMAN N.M. SUNDARAM !

SERVICE STORY: My LIC days.

by PG.POOCHERY

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The year 2009 is coming to a close.

I started writing my service story in my blog from December this year. I have already written 29 posts and this is the thirtieth one. My service story may be written in about hundred posts. This blogger service has opened up before me new vistas of possibilities into certain hitherto unknown areas . But for this blogger service, my erratic thoughts and musings wouldn't have seen the light of the day.

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I am a strange man. And stranger are my convictions. This has made a lot of difference to me in my life. I have before me a note book where I have noted down some of the incidents I have experienced and gone through in my life. I can write down these experiences one after the other. And my service story will be told in so many posts.

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But let me confess that with a sense of urgency I feel like writing about a person connected with working class movement in general and the insurance industry in particular. He is a very important person to me and the insurance employees. There were a number of prominent leaders like Mr. Saroj Chaudhary, Mr. Sunil Moitra, and Mr. Chandrasekhar Bose but I have not had any opportunity to meet and talk to them.

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Then who is my leader about whom I feel like writing here? Yes, your guess is correct. He is none other than Mr. NM Sundaram himself.

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His charisma and personal magnetism is something different from other trade union leaders you meet.

His ability to guide others is also very different.

He has a serious look and a confident way of expressing his ideas.

And that personal charm marvels.

I have watched this man with amazed admiration.

He always talked confidently. He didn't have any doubt about anything he talked about.

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When he talked to me at the zonal office, for a moment I longed for more privacy.

I suggested to him that it would be better if we moved to the nearby union office.

But he told me: "Nobody will disturb!". And believe me, it was really so.

.

While I admired him for the extraordinary person he is, he admired others too. Normally it is a practice at lower levels of employees to speak with a fair degree of animosity about top management men and rival union leaders. Com. Sundaram is an exception to this rule. He had only nice words to speak about at least some of them. For example, he said Mr. Narasimhan, who was then Chairman of LIC, was a straight forward gentleman. He had also nice words about Mr. Nachane who was a rival union leader.

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I carried these remarks in my publication 'Initiative'. I feared a lot of opposition from union cadres for publishing these remarks. And some of them at Calicut and Chennai did express these feelings to me. Let me explain. When I published these remarks, it was out of a journalistic instinct that I carried Sundaram's remarks which he had actually said in an off the record conversation with me. He was actually not replying any of my questions.

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As a freelance journalist, these were the remarks which attracted me most. And I believe, I have not done any disservice to any body by publishing those words. Some points do come up during an interview and the interviewer ably utilizes some of the innocent remarks made by the person who is interviewed. It is a fact that Mr. Sundaram made these remarks. Finally I published my magazine 'Initiative' and fearing hostility from union ranks, I just handed over only one copy to a union functionary at Chennai. Though I prominently carried Mr. N.M. Sundaram in 'Initiative', I was afraid to meet Mr. Sundaram and hand over a copy of the publication. I should have done it as a normal act of courtesy. I still regret, I couldn't do it.

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While on a visit to Calicut, I met Mr. Sundaram and told him that I carried certain remarks made by him in 'Initiative'. "What of that?" was his immediate reaction. He was as usual very brief in his reply and he didn't seem to feel that I did any harm to anybody.

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I found that Mr. Sundaram was respected in management circles also. Once Mr. N.N. Joshi, then Chief (Personnel) asked me to meet Mr. Sundaram and talk to him. "Mr. Sundaram is not speaking to me these days", Mr. Joshi told me. I met Mr. Sundaram at Chennai. And without telling him the purpose of my visit, I talked to him for a couple of hours. I conveyed the gist of my talk to Mr. N.N. Joshi.

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Those days I was making an attempt to conduct an all India seminar at Calicut. The chairman and all prominent leaders of employees unions including Mr. N.M. Sundaram had agreed to take part in this discussion. Mr. Diwan had asked me to send the details of the programme and he had also instructed his personal secretary to allot one or two days for attending this seminar at Calicut. But I had to abandon this project because of the non-cooperation of the local divisional manager Mr.V. Narayanan. Calicut had the misfortune of having such managers too.

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I wrote in 'Initiative' that Mr. NM Sundaram is a person who is revered and respected. While I do not wish to repeat all those words once again here, I consider Mr. Sundaram as a very able, honest and straight forward gentleman. These are the words he used to describe the then LIC chairman Mr. Narasimhan also and I do feel now that those words are apt for describing Mr. Sundaram as well.

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I have met at least five chairmen of LIC at LIC headquarters at Mumbai during the period they occupied this post and discussed various matters with them. And if you ask me what's it that I find in Mr. Sundaram which I didn't find in any of these chairmen, I would only say that Mr. Sundaram himself would have been a better chairman than any of the five chairmen I met there.

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That is Mr. N.M. Sundaram!

***

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A 'FRAUD' BY BANK, TOO!

SERVICE STORY: My LIC days.
by PG.POOCHERY
.
It was a stunning disclosure to me that even a nationalised bank had played a 'fraud' on the insurance company. The salary deduction department had a bank account with this state bank. Usual instruction to the bankers was to transfer amounts automatically to the head office of the central office when the amount exceeded a particular limit.

State Bank opened a second account and kept big amounts in this account without the knowledge of the insurance corporation. The bank closed this account when they came to know that the insurance corporation had come to know of the existence of such an account.

A second account was opened, maintained and finally closed by state bank. And the corporation was not in the know of things.

It speaks volumes for the efficiency of the department and there is little wonder that a fraud of great magnitude was perpetuated by an employee too in the same department.

***

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OF A MANAGER, HER DEPUTY AND A FRAUD.

SERVICE STORY: My LIC days!

by PG.POOCHERY

.

Let me recall the incident now.

A life insurance company lost money running to several lakhs. A simple game of preparing fresh cheques for insurance policies once settled was the modus operandi used by an employee.

The policy had been once settled and policyholder had received amounts due to him. When a second payment was generated from the same file and this cheque was encashed, the employee concerned did not anticipate any problem. His ingenuity, office experience and knowledge of procedures must have enabled him to employ this unique method.

.

The employee concerned was however finally caught red handed. It was then found out that two direct recruit class one lady officers were in the lime light.

Of the two, one lady was the manager in charge of the department. She failed to act despite the fact that she had enough warning that a number of "party waiting" cheques were lying unattended. The other lady was the administrative officer responsible for the erring employee being caught.

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The administrative officer was making usual follow up of cheques not encashed within the validity period of three months. She wrote to the party the usual letter why the cheque issued to him was not being encashed.

This was a case in which party had already received due payments. By fraudulent means a fresh cheque was generated from the same file and this cheque was presented for payment. Bankers refused to honour the second cheque as they suspected some foul play.

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Since a heavy amount was involved, proper follow up was necessary on the part of the office. Otherwise it would be difficult to convince auditors the reasons for the cheque not being encashed. The employee concerned who had committed the fraud knew that there would be continuous follow up and even an attempt to contact the party if the cheque was not encashed. Once the party was contacted, all details like receipt of one payment already would come to be known. For this reason, it was important that the file should be closed.

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The difficulty was that the file could be closed only when the payment was made. So the concerned employee committing fraud tried to intercept correspondence to the party. A letter was replied forging party's signatures. And this letter purportedly authorised an agent to receive payment on his behalf.

It is here the administrative officer caught the fraudster.

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When even this attempt failed, the culprit contacted the officer direct over her phone in an attempt to get the cheque, so that a second attempt to encash the cheque could be made so as to close the matter.

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The amount was not at all important to the fraudster since he had already amassed a fortune. Since he knew the office procedure, he was trying to get the cheque, encash it and finally close the issue. If the cheque was not encashed, he knew that the office would be obliged to take further action till the amount was paid to the party.

Relevance of administrative officer became absolutely imperative here. If she had chosen to prepare another cheque, handover the same to the agent as desired and if finally the erring employee had succeeded in encashing the cheque, this fraud wouldn't have seen the light of the day.

The whole credit therefore goes to this young lady for unearthing the fraud.

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SERVICES RECOGNISED !

I was an administratiave officer in this department for a brief period of less than one year.

There was no departmental enquiry to find out how it was possible for an employee to commit such a fraud.

Therefore I wrote to the division head showing my willingness to submit a report on this matter if the office gave me a nod, "orally or in writing".

I was anticipating a positive response from the division head.

And the response did come to me in the form of a transfer order transferring me to the policy servicing department!

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Tail piece: -

At the end of the financial year, the manager concerned received promotion orders.

Division head got a transfer as per his request.

Both of them left the division.

One day, personal assistant to the division head called me to inform that a letter I had given to the division head asking for permission to submit the report was lying there and I could take it away!

*** ** *

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