Festival bonus for govt. employees

The Ministry of Finance approved two festival bonuses per year even for the retired government employees who surrendered 100.0 per cent of their pension entitlement which was effective from the financial year 2008-09. Earlier the government raised the pensioners' net pension money by 25-40.0 per cent in 2005 and raised the same from 40-50.0 per cent in 2008-09.
Although most of the nationalised commercial banks and financial institutions responded to the government orders regarding disbursement of festival bonus to retired government employees, the Sonali Bank is yet to implement the same properly. It is of course not unusual for such a big bank of the country. But it cannot be accepted that the pensioners would suffer due to a bank's inability to implement the said order. This happened most particularly for the pensioners who surrendered 100.0 per cent of their pensions. For such pensioners net pension money was not raised by 25.0 per cent in 2005 or by 40.0-50.0 per cent (as the case may be) as per government orders of 2005 and 2008 respectively.
Very recently the Sonali Bank tried to clarify the matter to their different offices/branches vide a circular dated 23-06-2015 to update the pensioners' net pension money for the purpose of festival bonus. But the reduced payment or non-payment of actual festival bonus during the period from 2005 to 2014 remained unsolved. The special festival bonus declared by the government for the 100.0 per cent surrendering pensioners should not be tied to the regular festival bonuses paid to the employees. In their case, there may be limitations for payment on a particular date. But for payment of such special bonus to the pensioners, the bank is not required to issue cheques like government offices and others. The bank will only have to credit the calculated bonus amount to the bank accounts of the pensioners and advise accordingly. In the absence of any such communication by the bank, many of the pensioners would not know what the government has approved of.
When someone would know that the bank has paid less than the entitlement as per government order of 2005 and 2008, the bank is supposed to respond quickly and rectify their mistake and pay the admissible amount to the concerned pensioners. But this is not being done by the bank. As a result, pensioners who got less previously as compared with payment made by other banks and financial institutions in response to the government orders, would continue to loose. Now the matter should be investigated into by a high-powered committee and/or by the Bangladesh Bank so that the issue is resolved quickly.
A sufferer