ftp -i -n -v $HOST >> ${LOGFILE} << EOF
user ... ...
ascii
lcd ${OUTBOUND_DIR}
put ${src_fname}
quit
EOF
retcode=$?

echo "Exitcode FTP  :${retcode}"

I just need the return code

After spending most of the day trying an elegant solution, I settled on this one. This is a section of the code.
echo "ftp -n -v << *EOI" > $SCRIPT/ivr_call_detail_ftp.ksh
echo "open 172.21.102.231" >> $SCRIPT/ivr_call_detail_ftp.ksh
echo "user peri peri;" >> $SCRIPT/ivr_call_detail_ftp.ksh
echo "ascii" >> $SCRIPT/ivr_call_detail_ftp.ksh
echo "cd DOWrptfiles" >> $SCRIPT/ivr_call_detail_ftp.ksh
echo "ls -ltr" >> $SCRIPT/ivr_call_detail_ftp.ksh
echo "get $CALL_FILE ivr_call_detail_$DATE_STAMP.dat" >> $SCRIPT/ivr_call_detail_ftp.ksh
echo "bye" >> $SCRIPT/ivr_call_detail_ftp.ksh
echo "*EOI" >> $SCRIPT/ivr_call_detail_ftp.ksh

chmod 750 $SCRIPT/ivr_call_detail_ftp.ksh

$SCRIPT/ivr_call_detail_ftp.ksh > $LOG/ivr_call_detail_ftp.log

#Get the row from the ls -ltr command that
#contains the remote file and awk for the size.
#Peri is the owner of the file. CALL_FILE is 
# the name of the remote file.
RMT_FILE_SIZE=`awk '($3=="peri") && ($9 == "$CALL_FILE") {print $5}' $LOG/ivr_call_detail_ftp.log`

echo "Remote File Size: $RMT_FILE_SIZE."

#Get the row from the ls -ltr command that 
#contains the local file and awk for the size.
LCL_FILE_SIZE=`ls -ltr $DATA/ivr_call_detail_$DATE_STAMP.dat | awk '{print $5}'`

echo "Local File Size: $LCL_FILE_SIZE."

if (($LCL_FILE_SIZE == $RMT_FILE_SIZE))
then
echo "FTP Successful."
else
echo "FTP Failed."
fi