No. 6-1/2018-PBI(Pt.)
Government of India Ministry of Communications Department of Posts
(PBI Division)
Dak Bhawan, New Delhi Dated, 22 November 2021
Sub: - Proposed SOP regarding Handling of Repairs of Smartphones and Biometric Devices provided to End Users by IPPB.
I am directed to refer to IPPB's proposal dated 13.10.2021 on the subject mentioned above and to convey that IPPB may go ahead and implement the proposed model on experimental basis for 6 months. The model will be reviewed for improvement, if any, thereafter.
Yours faithfully
Mendel
Note on Handling of Repairs of Smartphones and Biometric Devices Provided to End Users
Background:
IPPB had procured a total of 1.87 lakh biometric devices and 1.50 lakh smart phones during 2018. The Biometric devices were provided to Postmen having smartphones, Counter PAs manning IPPB dedicated/common counters besides GDS who are provided with smartphones. The smart phones were provided initially one to each active BO for providing doorstep banking services in order to cover all BOs under the Divisions.
During the regular course of undertaking transactions, these devices were subject to malfunction/technical failures and were repaired as and when reported. besides, these devices were also reported lost by the end users in many cases.
As on 31.03.2021, a Total of 5126 smartphones and 4564 biometric devices were reported lost/damaged since inception.
As per MOU between DOP and IPPB, he cost of repairs and the cost of lost devices (adjusting for depreciation) were to be borne by the end users, where, in case of repairs the Bank bears the cost initially only to be recovered later from the end user. Notably, the entire activity of repairing these damaged devices from the authorised services centers are done by our Branch managers only.
Feedback from Branches/End Users:
The Bank had procured three brands of smartphones namely Motorola (Moto C), Samsun (J4), Panasonic (Eluga I7) and two variants of Biometric devices each (USB & Micro USB) under Startek ad Manra Brands. Based on feedback received from branches/Circle Teams, it is observed Panasonic Mobile Phones and Mantra micro-USB Biometric devices have high frequency of failures reported across the country.
as mandated in Operational Risk Policy on loss data management framework and subsequent SOPs published to the field teams, the repair costs had to be recovered from end users.
However, the recovery efforts pose a considerable challenge and delay, given the burden of these costs on the net salary of the GDS BPM/ABPM. Notably it is this category of end users that play a pivotal role in performing day to day IPPB transactions, to whom most smartphones and Biometric devices are distributed.
