Islami Bank Bangladesh recruited 8,542 employees without recruitment notices or competitive examinations during the period when the bank was under the control of S Alam Group, according to a special inspection report by Bangladesh Bank.
The report said the bank recruited a total of 10,832 people between 2017 and August 2024. Of them, 8,542 were appointed without the written and oral examinations required under the bank’s stated human resources policy.
The inspection also found a striking concentration of recruits from Chattogram. Of the 8,542 people appointed without examinations, 8,099 were from Chattogram district. As many as 5,148 were residents of Patiya upazila.
According to the report, boxes had been placed at the Patiya residence of the chairman of S Alam Group and at the group’s office in Asadganj, Chattogram, where CVs could be submitted against different positions.
Recruitment rules not followed
Under Islami Bank’s human resources policy, recruitment is supposed to begin with the publication of a notice, followed by written and oral examinations for eligible candidates. The Bangladesh Bank inspection, however, found that appointments to 27 positions were made without recruitment advertisements or competitive examinations.
The largest groups included 2,789 trainee assistant officers (cash), 2,160 trainee assistant officers, 1,544 messenger-cum-guards and 915 employees recruited under the RDS project.
The figures for these four categories alone amount to 7,408 appointments made without the standard competitive process. The remaining recruits were appointed to various other positions.
The report also identified irregularities involving senior management appointments. It said two managing directors, eight deputy managing directors, two senior executive vice-presidents and four executive vice-presidents were appointed without recruitment notices.
In some cases, candidates appointed as deputy managing directors did not meet the required experience criteria, according to the inspection findings.
Bangladesh Bank inspectors also took statements from 10 officials selected on a random basis. Several reportedly said that after CVs were submitted at the Patiya residence and the Asadganj office, oral interviews and other recruitment-related activities were conducted at those locations.
Recruitment concentrated in Chattogram
The district-wise figures show a marked concentration of appointments in Chattogram. After Chattogram’s 8,099 recruits, Cox’s Bazar had 398, Cumilla 114, Mymensingh 99, Bogura 97 and Dhaka 96.
Employees were also recruited from other districts, although the report does not provide the same level of detail for all of them.
The number from Patiya was particularly notable. More than 5,000 of the employees recruited without examinations were residents of the upazila, according to the inspection report.
The accounts gathered from bank officials also formed part of the inspection team’s assessment of how the recruitment process was conducted. The officials’ statements reportedly described a system in which CVs were collected at locations associated with the S Alam Group before further recruitment activities took place.
Questions over probationary officer recruitment
The recruitment of probationary officers also came under scrutiny.
According to the report, 190 people were appointed to Islami Bank’s 24th probationary officer batch in 2019 without a recruitment advertisement. Twelve of them were appointed without sitting the written examination.
A large portion of those recruited through the process subsequently lost their jobs, the report said.
The inspection report, however, distinguished these appointments from other recruitment exercises. It found that the appointment of 144 probationary officers in 2017 and 200 in 2024 followed the proper recruitment procedure.
Employee assessment and dismissals
After inspections and audits following 5 August 2024 identified irregularities in recruitment, Islami Bank’s board decided to assess the qualifications of employees recruited during the period under review.
An assessment examination was held in 2025. Of the employees who took part, 402 were retained in their jobs, while 4,971 did not participate in the examination.
According to the report, the bank’s management subsequently decided to dismiss 4,685 employees. Islami Bank’s acting managing director, Md Altaf Hossain, said the dismissals were carried out in accordance with due process.
Bangladesh Bank spokesperson and executive director Arif Hossain Khan said employee recruitment and dismissal were matters for the bank’s own management. He said the decisions had been taken by Islami Bank authorities and that intervention by the central bank would not be appropriate.
The special inspection report therefore records concerns at several levels of Islami Bank’s recruitment process during the period under review. It details appointments made without the notices and competitive examinations required by the bank’s human resources policy, the geographical concentration of a large proportion of those recruits, and subsequent efforts to assess their qualifications.
The findings also make a distinction between recruitment exercises that were found to have bypassed the prescribed process and those, including the 2017 and 2024 probationary officer batches, that the inspection team considered compliant with the relevant procedures.
