Employees either report late for work or leave before office hours
MARGAO
The next time you pay a visit to the Margao Municipal Council, don’t be surprised if you come across empty sections, with staffers and officials on their seats after 5 pm.
Reason: With the bio-metric finger scan reader down and out for several months now and the civic body having returned back to the old system of signing attendance rolls, unscrupulous staffers seemed to have been taking advantage of the situation, by either reporting late for work or leaving the building before office hours.
Gone are the days when one used to come across officials and staff alike making a beeline at the finger scan reader both upstairs and on the ground floor of the building to register their entry and exit from the building.
Sadly, the bio-metric finger scan reader has been down and out for months now, but no effort has been made by the administration as well as by the political leadership to repair or replace the devise.
Incidentally, the finger scan reader was first implemented by the civic body around a decade ago by former Municipal Chairperson Johnson Fernandes at the instruction of Margao MLA Digambar Kamat.
Initially, the Municipal employees and workers had resisted the system of recording of attendance on the bio-metric finger scan reader, but later accepted the same.
Sources in the MMC informed that the attendance rolls are presently kept in the chamber of the MMC Administrative cum Accounts officer Abhay Rane. The employees and staff are required to sign the rolls in the AAO’s chamber.
During the tenure of outgoing MMC Chairperson Lyndon Pereira, the attendance rolls were all kept in the chamber of the Chairperson after the ex-Chairperson realised that certain employees leave the office early by signing the rolls kept with the section heads.
When The Goan called up AAO Abhay Rane to shed light on the question why the MMC employees and workers are signing on the muster rolls when the MMC had spent huge money on the bio-metric finger scan reader, he underscored the need to revive the finger scan reader at the earliest.
“I have joined the MMC only recently. I will find out whether the finger scan readers are in working condition and if not, why the devise has not been repaired or replaced till date,” he said.
When The Goan contacted Chairperson Damu Shirodkar to shed light on the status of the bio-finger scan readers, he said would take a review of the situation next week. Shirodkar, who had taken a host of measures to bring accountability and transparency in the MMC administration has also favoured recording of attendance via the bio-metric finger scan readers.
Sources in the know pointed out some of the employees are often found reporting late for duties even at 10.30 in the morning and get away with late coming since there’s no mechanical check on the attendance.
The bio-metric finger scan is being favoured in certain quarters in the Margao civic body to ensure that wages of workers, who do not report for work are not manipulated by unscrupulous persons.
