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Express Tribune
7 days ago
- Business
- Express Tribune
PAC orders sacking of 19 fake KDA employees
SIDCL had now been transferred to the Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives. PHOTO: FILE The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Sindh Assembly has ordered the dismissal of 19 Karachi Development Authority (KDA) employees after it was confirmed that their appointments were fake. The directive came during a PAC meeting held on Thursday under the chairmanship of senior PPP leader Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, which reviewed audit paras of the Karachi Development Authority (KDA), Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA) and the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA). Attendees at the meeting included PAC member Taha Ahmed, KDA Director General Asif Jan Siddiqui, HDA DG Asghar Ali Ghanghro, and the WASA CEO. The committee was informed that although the KDA has 4,000 sanctioned posts, only 2,200 employees are currently working. An internal inquiry identified 53 suspected fake employees, of whom 19 were confirmed bogus, while the verification process for the remaining staff is still underway. Taking serious notice of the delay in action, Khuhro questioned why disciplinary proceedings had not been initiated against the confirmed cases. The KDA DG informed the committee that the case had been referred to the Local Government Department and assured that termination letters would be issued shortly. The parliamentary corruption watchdog also expressed concern over the absence of a biometric attendance system in the KDA. The DG admitted that no digital attendance mechanism exists at present, although barcodes are used for tracking files and property-related transactions. He said steps were being taken to introduce a biometric system. The committee took strong exception to the reclassification and commercial allotment of amenity plots, which it termed a violation of Supreme Court orders. Audit officials told the PAC that several plots reserved for public amenities were leased out to private commercial entities, including Sindbad Park and South City Hospital. The KDA DG informed the committee that a 28,000-square-yard plot was leased to Sindbad Park between 1981 and 2016 at a nominal rate of Rs5 per square yard, with a monthly rent of Rs1 million. A revised agreement in 2016 increased the rate to Rs18 per square yard, raising the monthly rent to Rs1.5 million. In the case of South City Hospital, a 3,000-square-yard plot initially allotted to Marvi Medical Centre was reallocated following the cancellation of the earlier allotment in 2023. The new allotment was made at a rate of Rs37,000 per square yard on court orders. Khuhro questioned why the land was not leased at prevailing market rates, raising concerns about loss to the exchequer. The PAC directed the provincial chief secretary to constitute a special inquiry committee to thoroughly investigate the matter and determine whether the allotments were made in accordance with rules and regulations. The PAC also expressed concern over the alleged diversion of Rs527 million from pension and General Provident Fund (GPF) accounts to meet salary shortfalls. The matter has been referred to the Local Government secretary for a detailed probe.
Express Tribune
08-05-2025
- Business
- Express Tribune
Digitally 'sapped'
Listen to article Circa 1925: The undivided Indian subcontinent ruled by the British, consisted of approximately 2 million government employees and about 20 million pensioners. The number of ghost employees and ghost pensioners was zero and no one fraudulently received salary or pension from two different government departments. Now fast forward by a century, 2025 to be exact, and focus on just two government departments. The Karachi Development Authority's recent audit revealed that Rs667 million or 30% of KDA's total pension fund of Rs2.21 billion was fraudulently received by some 500 bogus pensioners. Another 2024 report, on Karachi Municipal Corporation, uncovered approximately 950 ghost employees, besides another 200 individuals drawing salaries from two public sector organisations simultaneously. The two examples are just the tip of an iceberg in an ocean of 'ghosts'. How does Pakistan reform its bizarre 'multiple salary and ghost pensioner' crisis? The KMC's proud announcement of purchasing very expensive Enterprise software from a global company for their payroll processing was received with an aura of disbelief and astonishment — akin to shooting a sparrow with a missile. It was deeply disappointing to see Pakistan missing an excellent opportunity, especially when hundreds of our own IT companies are developing and exporting (around $4 billion this year) enterprise-level HR systems. We also have organisations like Ignite for developing incubation centres and universities that have produced a steady stream of IT professionals for the past many decades. Global enterprise-level software are known as expensive solutions due to their upfront payment, implementation cost, change request and upkeep perspective. They take a huge toll on our limited foreign exchange and make us reach out to respective consultants for every small change. They have a long implementation period and in many cases the requirements get dated by the time the software is rolled out. Both the cost and ease of use are some of the key factors for selecting software. Typically, a system such as SAP, would initially cost over $100,000 (depending upon the number of employees), followed by 10-15% yearly payment for upkeep. Why would a single government department of a developing country choose such an astronomically expensive option? Would thousands of other government departments be also competing with each other in pursuit of similar high-cost imported solutions? Pakistan is digitally 'sapped' and asphyxiated. It cries out for urgent and radical citizen-centric digital reforms — that deliver services to citizens, bring efficiencies in government operations and plug wastages in the national exchequer. We could learn from excellent digital services established by Uzbekistan, where a single unified interactive portal delivers all services offered by the state, where no one ever submits photocopies and affidavits, where no one needs to visit government offices and where no one can draw ghost pension for even a single day, as all births and deaths are officially registered on the same day. Pakistan too can step forward to deconstruct and reform its century-old system of governance-by-photocopies. It can engage its youth, its academia and its excellent software houses to provide indigenous low-cost solutions. These could be standardised across the country, integrated with each other and linked to NADRA. This would enable us to eliminate the existing chaos where an individual can simultaneously (and easily) be receiving salary or pension from six different municipalities of Pakistan. A well-integrated system will not just make all ghost salaries and double pensions a tale of the past but will also instantaneously highlight numerous other shortcomings. The 60% neglected workforce that is not paid the minimum wage, the 95% workers who are cruelly deprived of their EOBI and thousands who draw salaries without ever having done a single day's work are just a few of such regularly committed malpractices. Pakistan and its ordinary people must no longer suffer a life of misery and runarounds, simply because our leaders are unable to imagine how digital technology can lift Pakistan out of its self-created poverty and affliction.
