LG minister sacks 1,841 KMC ghost employees, suspends 37 TMOs

Karachi
The Sindh minister for information and local government Sharjeel Inam Memon on Tuesday terminated the services of 1,841 ghost employees of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and suspended 37 37 town municipal officers across the province.
According to a statement issued by the local government department, the terminated employees were working in the education department at grades between BPS-1 till BPS-17 and had not showed up at work despite several warnings.
Most of the terminated employees were primary school teachers. They received salaries regularly but never showed up to work.
Talking to The News, the minister said that with the termination of these employees, the KMC would be able to save around Rs600 million being paid to them as salaries.
“There are more officers in the KMC and also in the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) who have obtained appointments thorough fake documents and action will be taken against them,” he said.
“Moreover, there are thousands of other ghost employees. So far we have sacked 141 employees of the KWSB and we are trying to track down who hired them in the first place.
The Sindh Building Control Authority is also facing huge losses on this account as well.”
Commenting on the matter, KMC administrator Roshan Ali Sheikh said internal scrutiny was in progress at a rapid pace and very soon all ghost employees would be removed from municipal organisations.
He said the menace had pervaded every part of the KMC, causing it to incur huge losses on account of the corruption.
According to Sheikh, education, health and municipal services departments of the KMC were the worst affected. However, he said, metropolitan commissioner Samiuddin Siddiqui had been given the charge to track down all absent workers and take action against them.
Meanwhile, the local government minister also issued directions to the KMC Administrator to submit a report within 15 days about the recruitment of so many ghost employees and the officers who had confirmed their appointments so the cases may be referred to the anti-corruption authorities.

37 TMOs suspended
The Sindh minister for information and local government Sharjeel Inam Memon also suspended 37 TMOs posted across the province for not obeying his orders and not submitting to the local government the details of six months’ accounts of their respective towns.
The minister suspended them on Tuesday while exercising powers conferred to him under the Removal from Service (Special Powers) Ordinance 2000, with the warning that the services of these officers would be terminated if they didn’t deposit details of their official accounts in future too.
These officers had been issued show-cause notices on 22 September, 2014, and then later also on April 27, 2015, asking them to provide the account details of their towns.
However, the TMOs failed to submit the relevant details and the minister finally suspended them from service.
Talking to The News, the minister confirmed that the officers had been asked a year before to submit the details of their finances but they had failed to do so.
The suspended TMOs are: Amir Ali Bhutto (Admn branch), Faisal Hasan Daheri (Admn branch), Abdul Rasool Khoso (TMO Sakrand), Syed Muhammad Ali Shah (Admn branch), Mian Imran Andhair (TMO Sualehput), Khalid Khan Kharoosh and Waqar Ahmed (TMO Obaro), Syed Javed Hasan Shah (TMO Pano Aqil), Agha Khaliq Ahmed Khan Durrani and Syed Ahsan Ali Shah (TMO Sohbo Dero), Agha Amjad Ali Pathan (TMO Ghari Khero), Manzoor Hussain Samejo, Gada Hussain Zardari and Shafqat (TMO Jhuddo), Baghan Khan Nandwani (TMO Tangwani), Liaquat Ali Bhatti and Abid Ali Khoso (TMO Manjhand), Amar Lal Akarani and Ali Ahmed Magsi (MCO Hala), Iqtedar Ali Jafri and Mehboob Ali Bariri (Shaheed Benaziabad), Abdul Hameed Shaikh (Diplo), Majid Anwar Sehar and Muhammad Ibrahim Umrani (Tando Adam), Waheed Panhiyar and Ejaz Ahmed Mallah (Mero Khan), Anisur RehmanSayal (DMC Korangi), Zahoor Ahmed Lakhan (Naushero Feroz), Syed Ejaz Ali Shah (Malir), Ayaz Hameedullah Baloch (Malir), Alamghir Junejo (Sanjharo), Mehtab Ali Khawaja (Samaro), Fayyaz Ali Shah and Syed Ali Haider Shah, Syed Ali Mughari, Zainul Abideen Malik (Kunri) and Azizur Rehman Tunio.
The minister declared that the government would not tolerate corrupt and absentee employees in its department.
He said local government secretary Imran Atta Soomro had been asked to prepare a list of ghost employees in several local government departments and they shall be removed from their posts as well.
Replying to a question about the volatile political situation and the prospect of local government election being held in the province, the minister said the government wanted cordial relations with all parties and institutions. He said the local government elections will be held as planned on September 20. — Additional input by Azeem Samar