‘95pc Sindh agri dept employees draw salaries without work

[Naveed Yaseen]

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was informed on Tuesday that most government employees were drawing salaries without doing any work. This was highlighted when the PAC observed that “a large number of staff” was posted at agriculture department workshops, and that, they were drawing salaries “without performing any duty”. This had caused a loss of Rs37.12 million to the provincial exchequer.

In his response, Agriculture Secretary Aga Jan Akhtar said that if this was the contention of the audit, then such objections could be raised against “95 per cent” government employees, because they were also drawing salaries without performing any duty. He said that this purported “excess” staff comprises bulldozer operators, drivers and greasers who were working as per the “sanctioned strength” and approval of the government.

He said that since the bulldozers were not working, their operators were performing other duties in the department. Various departments, such as forestry, owed Rs130 million to the agriculture department, he said, adding that if this money was returned to the department these bulldozers could be repaired and made functional. Akhtar said that the agriculture department used to charge Rs75 per hour from farmers for levelling land etc, while a private bulldozer could charge Rs800 per hour. The agriculture department has approximately 133 bulldozers, and according to the rules, there should be two operators for each bulldozer, he said.

The PAC pointed out that machinery worth Rs14.33 million was purchased in June 2006 without the completion of a food lab in Mirpurkhas. The agriculture secretary said that he could not defend this, because the warranty period had ended and the machinery was destroyed due to rains. The PAC issued a letter to the chief minister and the chief secretary to fix responsibility for the matter.

When the PAC was informed that an officer of the department had illegally drawn Rs14.28 million of government money in his name, Jam Tamachi said everyone knows that such officers were being appointed on the recommendations of certain personalities and by virtue of being “influential”, they did not follow rules and regulations. Jam Tamachi observed that the officials did not seem to have done their homework before coming to the PAC. In response, Akhar said that there was “a lot of mess” in the department and he did not think that he could rectify it.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=191544