Devil in Pinstripes

by Ravi Subramanian

  ‘I had to come here to close a deal with a credit analytics firm. We might be buying a data analytics package from this Hyderabad company. That’s why I came in yesterday morning,’ he lied. ‘When Aditya got to know that I was here, he asked me to take a look at the processes that you guys run.’

  ‘I understand. You too are here in connection with the suicide issue? Amit was here yesterday and you are here today.’ Victor was not an idiot and was quick to see through Manish’s clumsy attempt at lying. Manish didn’t respond. He just smiled. Within minutes, they were walking out of the hotel, into Victor’s car, on their way to the NFS branch in Hyderabad.

  Manish got down to work almost immediately on reaching the branch. The conference room in the front office of the branch was free and became Manish’s den for the day.

  He asked for the application form, the documents submitted by Tulsiram, the fraud check results . . . almost the same documents that Amit had asked for. All those were quickly reviewed and shoved back into the cupboard in twenty minutes. Nothing fishy there. The receipt books were next on his list.

  The collections receipt books are an integral part of any collections process. These receipt books or rather receipt pads are given to all the collection agents. They are sequentially numbered and the collection agents are supposed to carry them whenever they go on their field visits. These are meant to be issued to every customer who pays up his overdue instalment to the agent when they go knocking on the customer’s door. The collection agent fills out these receipts in duplicate and gets the customer’s signature on them as an acknowledgement. A copy is then given to the customer as a proof of him having paid the instalments to the agent of NFS. The receipts are audited every month to see if receipts are available for every payment collected. The audit needs to validate the receipts corresponding to every payment picked up by the collection agent.

  The receipt books ensure that the cash collected by the agents is deposited in the company every day. There are instances where some collection agents collect money from the customers and do not deposit it back in the company. In such a case, a copy of the receipt with the customer is used as a proof to nail the collector. It also avoids conflict between the customer and the finance company.

  The receipt book is a very abused, but nevertheless a critical part of the process in collections. Many a frauds in collections surface during the receipt book audits. In all good organisations, a monthly audit of the receipt books is diligently undertaken. To ensure independence and sanctity of the audit, this is done by someone from outside the credit and collection chain of command. The receipt book is the bible of collections and any abuse of the receipt book process is met with instant termination of the officials concerned.

  ‘Victor, can I have the receipt books and the receipt book audit report for the last three months? I want to specifically see the receipts for Tulsiram’s payments from August 2007 to November.’ And ‘Yaaaaawwwwnn . . . I want to see them quickly please. I do not have time . . . Yaaaawwnnnn,’ drawled Manish while making a miserably failed attempt at screaming. He was in a hurry and any delay on the part of the Hyderabad team was not acceptable. The long flight and the lack of sleep the previous night, thanks to Aditya, was catching up with him now. He was feeling tired. His eyes were red and burning. Sitting in front of his laptop all night long had literally made him a mouse potato! The tight deadline had put so much pressure on him that he couldn’t afford any rest. The only way to keep awake was to gulp the ever-reliable dose of caffeine. He walked up to the pantry which was towards the rear of the branch, intending to pick up a cup of coffee for himself. He had to cross the back office and the collections bays en route to the pantry. While trying to convince his mind that it was just a cup of coffee away from being bright eyed and bushy tailed again, a glitzy poster stuck on a wall in the bay caught his attention. It had the interesting caption, ‘MONEY LAO – DOLLAR PAO’ written in large mega fonts. Images of dollars were carefully strewn into a graphic depicting fun and frolic. Seemed to be a promotional poster for a collections contest. He waved out to the guy sitting in the bay, who saw him and came running.

  ‘What’s this?’ he asked pointing at the large poster.

  ‘Oh this? MONEY LAO – DOLLAR PAO,’ and he beamed as if all the dollars had gone into his pocket.

  ‘I can see that. But what is it?’

  ‘It is a collections contest which we are running for our agents. It means collect outstanding dues and take your reward in dollars. Well actually, it’s just a rhyming title for promoting our collections contest. We are not actually paying out in dollars. The incentives are being paid out in rupees only.’

  ‘I know that.’ Manish was irritated. Why do people always give long answers for short and simple questions? He did not realise that it was his anglicised accent that made the guy respond in the manner he did. Manish always spoke as if there was a plum in his mouth. Indians in corporates normally go all out to impress a foreign visitor and the poor bloke was no different. He was under the impression that Manish was a big shot visiting them from across the seven seas.

  ‘Is it on now?’

  ‘Yes sir. December is the last month for the contest. It’s for four months – September to December. We were running behind on our collection numbers for the year. So Victor sir approved a four month contest. This is to help us get closer to the plan numbers for the year by December.’

  ‘Great, thanks. India is the only country in the Asia Pacific region, which does all these contests and builds excitement at the grass root levels. Can you give me a copy of the contest note, for my reference? I just want to know the terms of the contest. Just so that it can be shared across the region . . . you guys are doing a fabulous job. Keep it going. There are a number of fantastic practices here that we need to replicate across our global network.’ Saying this, he added a fake smile as a finishing touch, a smile that he had learned to perfect in his role at the regional office.

  ‘It will be with you in five minutes sir,’ a fully motivated collections officer replied.

  ‘Great. What do you do here?’

  ‘Sir, I manage the collections MIS and strategy.’

  ‘Oh, so you are the guy who sends out those daily MIS reports for the contests, etc.’

  ‘Yes sir I do. That’s my job,’ beamed Pushkar.

  ‘Great, why don’t you also give me a copy of the various contest MIS that you publish. It would be good to see that as well.’

  ‘Sure sir. I will bring it to your room.’

  ‘Thanks!’ Forcing himself to sound pleasant and flashing a grin, Manish went on his way to get himself a much needed cup of coffee. Within five minutes as promised, Pushkar was at his desk with a CD. The CD had the contest note and the MIS deck. Manish inserted the CD in his laptop and glanced through the MIS deck. It had collector-wise details of performance against set targets. ‘Useful stuff,’ he muttered to himself.

  ‘I thought a soft copy might be useful,’ said Pushkar.

  ‘Oh yes it is, thank you.’ A happy Pushkar went on his way, back to his workstation.

  The collections receipt book audit report came to him in about half an hour and so did the receipt books that contained amongst others, the receipts pertaining to the last four payments made by Tulsiram.

  Manish took about an hour trying to put all the pieces of the puzzle together. A couple of times Victor came and knocked on the conference room door. Manish dismissed him and asked him to come back later. Finally, after about an hour, he buzzed Victor and asked him to come and see him.

  ‘Ya Manish?’

  ‘I want to meet all the agents who interacted with Tulsiram and collected cash from him in the last four months.’

  ‘Oh, it’s the same guy. For six months now, it has been only Sunder who has been speaking to him. I will try and call him. Poor guy has been interrogated enough over the last few days. Do you want him to bring anything for you to review?’

  ‘Yes. I want him to bring the various rep
orts he had filed after his collections visits on Tulsiram.’

  ‘Sure. Anything else?’

  ‘That will be fine for now. If you can ask this agent to meet me in the next two hours, that will be really helpful. I am really short on time.’

  ‘Will ask him to come right away if I can get him on the phone.’

  Thankfully, Sunder was available and came by. Manish met him for about fifteen minutes. He asked a few basic questions and then let him go.

  As Sunder was walking out, Manish called him back. ‘Sunder, if I have any further questions, I will call you. What number can I reach you on?’ Sunder pulled out a card from his bag and gave it to Manish. ‘My number is on this card sir.’

  ‘What do you think of him?’ Victor asked when he was alone in the room with Manish.

  ‘Nothing in particular. Why?’

  ‘Seems to be a decent chapie.’

  ‘Am sure he does look like one.’ The reaction was curt and was an indication to Victor that Manish was not keen on nor did he have any time for unnecessary discussions.

  In another hour, Manish was almost through with what he had wanted to do. He had collected all the data he needed. The analysis was done and complete. There were two more tasks to be accomplished, and then he would be ready to present his analysis to Aditya. Aditya had a 7.45 p.m. flight back to Mumbai. ‘I have to be at the airport by 6.45 p.m. . . . which means I will have to leave the branch by 5.45 p.m. I have three hours to go,’ he muttered, reminding himself that he had to hurry up and close his discussions.

  ‘Victor, I want to meet the guys who normally do these receipt book audits.’

  ‘Let me see who has done these.’ Victor walked up to the table to glance at the audit reports. ‘Oh, not an issue. All these have been done by Nirmal. He sits in the branch. Shall I call him?’

  ‘Did you ask Nirmal to do these audits?’

  ‘Actually, we need someone from outside collections to do these audits. This is essential to maintain independence of the process . . . to ensure that the person who has done this does not have a vested interest.’

  ‘How does that explain Nirmal doing these audits?’ Manish asked in a very irritated tone. He could tolerate preaching from Aditya, but not from someone levels below him in the hierarchy.

  ‘Manish, as you know, we are always looking out for people to do these audits. Nirmal volunteered. Ever since, he is the one doing the audits for us. Suits us as he is from sales and hence no direct linkage into collections.’

  ‘I understand that. Can you get him to come in quickly?’ Manish’s tone clearly spelt out irritation.

  Nirmal walked in casually after lunch. He was the location manager for Hyderabad. The entire sales and customer service across all the twenty-two branches in Hyderabad reported to him. He was a senior player and had been in the NFS system for quite some time.

  ‘You wanted to see me, Manish?’ He was an old-timer there and hence addressed Manish by his first name. Manish didn’t seem to mind.

  ‘Hey Nirmal! How have you been?’ Manish knew him. He used to be a branch manager in Mumbai. His closeness to Gowri and Sangeeta was not hidden from anybody. The same proximity was probably responsible for him getting a plum posting as location head of Hyderabad. Manish always thought that he was a dodo.

  ‘I am fine Manish. Hope you are liking Singapore? Don’t you feel like coming back?’

  ‘The way you guys are going, looks like I have to.’ This comment brought a frown on Nirmal’s face. Manish didn’t seem to mind. Okay, quickly tell me, how often do you do these audits?’ Manish couldn’t afford to waste time engaging in loose talk.

  ‘Every month. Why?’

  ‘Who does it?’

  ‘I do it. Why?’

  ‘How much time do you spend on these audits? Do you actually look at the receipt books when you audit?’

  ‘Yes. Of course,’ Nirmal gravely answered.

  ‘Do you know that you have to physically check hundred percent of the receipts and not a sample?’

  ‘Yes. I check hundred percent.’

  ‘Hundred percent of the receipts for correctness of data, missing receipts, blank receipts and customer signatures?’

  ‘Oh yes Manish.’

  ‘Can’t be Nirmal.’

  ‘Come on Manish. I am telling you. Every one of the receipts are checked.’ Nirmal had started fidgeting awkwardly by now.

  ‘In the fifteen minutes that I sat with the receipt books Nirmal, I found out at least twenty-seven erroneous ones, twelve blank receipts and I have brushed through only about four hundred receipts. You have identified only twelve errors in your entire checking for November . . . out of about 2,500 receipts. Something has to be wrong somewhere. You couldn’t have missed out so many mistakes.’

  ‘Can’t be,’ Nirmal murmured.

  ‘Look at this. Your October report. There is hardly any difference between your September report and October report in terms of qualitative evaluation. Someone seems to have taken the September report and just done a “Find and Replace” for September with October. Everything else is just the same.’

  ‘Ha ha. Thank Bill Gates for that Manish. What would we have done without Microsoft Word? Ha ha!’

  ‘I am not kidding Nirmal.’ Manish was a no-nonsense guy and Nirmal’s reply provoked his mind to start smouldering like Mount Vesuvius.

  ‘Oh no Manish. I was just joking. That would probably have been a slip up. But, normally we check everything.’

  ‘We? Who is “We”?’ There was someone else who was also involved. Who was he?

  ‘Myself and Raman Bhaskar.’

  ‘Raman Bhaskar? Who is he? The same guy who was in Raipur?’ The name rang a bell and arched his already elevated eyebrows to the zenith of his forehead.

  ‘He is the collections head for Hyderabad now. Works for Victor. Yes, at some point in time he was in Raipur in collections. Moved out some years back. Went into sales as a branch manager for an upcountry branch. He is now back in collections. You know him?’

  ‘Yes, of course. Wasn’t he the guy who was about to be sacked in the Toyota car fraud case along with Vikas, when he was in Raipur? Gowri had saved him then and taken him into his own stream.’

  ‘Same guy,’ Nirmal nodded.

  ‘Is he around? Get him. I want to meet him.’

  ‘Sure. After our meeting, I will ask Victor to send him in.’

  ‘OKAY. Coming back. He helps you in your audit for receipt books? This is supposed to be an audit of how his team adheres to process and the controls in his system . . . and HE helps you audit that?’

  ‘Yes Manish,’ Nirmal replied nonchalantly.

  ‘Are you out of your mind Nirmal?’ Manish was shocked. He was now blowing steam like an over-used and under-cleaned pressure cooker.

  The receipt book audit that Nirmal was supposed to do was to check the performance of the Hyderabad team, i.e. to check Raman Bhaskar’s team’s compliance to laid out process. And here he was . . . taking help from Raman to do that. How ridiculous could it get? Manish was fuming.

  ‘Not really. At times he only helps in providing manual support to the process. You know it becomes difficult for me to check all the receipts. He helps me with it.’

  ‘You could have asked someone from your sales team to help you with it . . . rather than ask Raman Bhaskar to help you.’

  ‘Sales targets are important. No . . . Manish. If we don’t achieve them, how do we make our incentives? Pulling out sales guys to do this audit is not possible. No one will do it.’ He was not too convincing.

  ‘What the fuck is wrong with you Nirmal? This is complete bastardisation of the audit process. You could be in trouble if I report this.’

  ‘Let me look into this Manish. I was only trying to help. You should be asking these questions to Victor.’ Nirmal was surprisingly unapologetic. Manish realised that he was not there to change the system. He was there to find facts related to the Tulsiram case. He moved on. Nirmal could be dealt with lat
er.

  Manish probed further and asked a number of uncomfortable questions. The discussion with Nirmal lasted another forty-five minutes. It was planned to be a ten minute discussion. At the end of the heated conversation, Manish looked a shocked man. His facial expression, which till now had oozed confidence, had undergone a hundred and eighty degree change. Worried, he seemed to be torn between what was the right thing to do and what was the good thing to do. He couldn’t believe what Nirmal had told him.

  ‘OKAY. Thanks. You can go now. You will hear from me soon,’ was his parting remark to Nirmal. He called Raman Bhaskar and was closeted in the room with him for over thirty minutes. Victor looked on from outside the glass walls of the conference room. There was an animated discussion going on inside. He couldn’t figure out what the discussion was about.

  By the time the discussion ended, it was already three in the afternoon.

  ‘Do you need anything else Manish?’ Victor asked him.

  ‘No Victor. I am fine. In fact I am through with what I wanted to do. I am only expected at the airport by 6.45. I have some time to kill. What do you recommend I do?’

  Victor just looked on blankly, waiting for some instructions from Manish.

  ‘Tell me. Are you guys still in touch with Jacqueline?’ Manish asked him.

  ‘Once in a while. Not much after she left us.’

  ‘Is she still in Hyderabad?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Where is she these days?’

  ‘Vodafone. She quit us and joined Vodafone.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘You were not there Manish. There was no motivation for her to stay!’ Victor winked at Manish and broke into a smile.

  ‘Very funny.’ Manish was not amused at this tongue in cheek remark from Victor. But the fact was that he had the hots for Jacqueline and it was known to almost everyone.

  ‘Do you have her phone number?’

  ‘Let me see.’ He searched through the phone book on his cell phone. ‘Found it. I am SMSing it to you.’

  Jacqueline was the earlier collections head for Hyderabad for NFS. At one point in time she had worked with Manish, when he was in India, in his central team in Mumbai. Her marriage to a Hyderabad-based businessman had brought her to the city of pearls. A few months back she had quit NFS and moved on. Had Manish been in India at that time, he would have surely held her back. Unfortunately, he was miles away in Singapore. Now, since Manish had some time, he wanted to catch up with her. Wasn’t she one of his favourites?