CS orders timely action in corruption cases, seeks proposals for good governance

Sindh Chief Secretary Sindh Syed Asif Hyder Shah on Friday chaired a meeting of the Secretaries Committee on key agendas, including anti-corruption cases, development projects, pensions, and court cases, ordering actions on a priority basis.

Officials said CS Shah convened the meeting at the Sindh Secretariat and it was attended by all administrative secretaries, including the chairmen of the Planning Board and the anti-corruption department, while all commissioners participated via video link.

A wide array of topics, including anti-corruption cases, developmental projects, automation of employee pensions, court cases, employee promotions, disciplinary actions, and the Public Accounts Committee, came under discussion.

During the meeting, the secretary implementation and coordination gave a briefing, highlighting that since January 2023, different departments had forwarded 99 cases to the anti-corruption department, out of which 21 had been resolved while 78 were in pending.

Among the cases forwarded, the Department of Food has the highest number of cases at 46. Furthermore, it was disclosed that there are currently 1,285 disciplinary action cases against government employees, with the Department of School Education having the highest number at 562.

Moreover, it was revealed that there are 204 pending pension cases across various departments. Additionally, the meeting was informed that from 2023 until now, a total of 2,745 directives and public complaints have been received from the offices of the president of Pakistan, the prime minister, and the chief minister of Sindh, out of which 2,369 have been resolved and the remaining will be resolved soon.

Addressing the meeting, CS Shah expressed concern over the delays in employee pensions, emphasizing that such delays would not be tolerated. He announced plans to fully digitize pension processes and tasked the Information Technology Department with overseeing digitization across all departments. Furthermore, he urged timely responses to Supreme Court, high court, and lower judiciary cases, suggesting separate sections for court cases within all departments and assigning focal persons within three days. Shah also directed all departments to recover official vehicles from retired government officers. He stressed the importance of swiftly resolving encroachments by all deputy commissioners on government lands and attributed delays in various projects to the non-provision of land by the Revenue Department.

It was decided in the meeting that the performance of deputy commissioners will be reviewed in future sessions.

Lastly, the CS emphasized the responsibility of senior officers to propose reforms to the government. He announced plans to provide briefings on reforms needed in various departments during cabinet meetings. The Secretaries Committee meeting concluded with a resolve to address these issues promptly and ensure efficient governance in the province of Sindh.