‘Final list of ghost employees in LG depts to be issued soon’

Karachi
Sindh Minister for Local Government and Information Sharjeel Memon has said the final list of ghost employees in municipal bodies and water board will be issued in a couple of days.
Talking to The News, he said so far 560,000 employees at the metropolitan corporation, water board and all the DMCs have opened their accounts in the Sindh Bank making themselves entitled for salaries.
He added if the left over employees did not open their accounts in Sindh Bank soon their salaries will be withheld.
It may be noted that the minister had launched a campaign against ghost employees and for scrutiny the workers were asked to open their salary accounts in the Sindh Bank.
Newly-appointed KMC Administrator Roshan Ali Sheikh said on the occasion that internal scrutiny in the corporation will continue to flush out ghost employees.
In March this year, the Sindh local government minister had said that the number of ghost employees in the LG department was not in hundreds but thousands.
He had said the government had resolved to get rid of them and in this regard it had been decided that salary accounts of municipal staffers will be opened in the Sindh Bank.
This way, he added, they will be under government control.
Memon said the reopening of salary accounts in Sindh banks will help weed out municipal employees who had either left the country, passed away or were working in any other government department.
He described the high court’s stay order against opening of accounts in Sindh Bank as “lamentable”. But he said the government’s legal experts will provide the administrative justification of the decision taken by the provincial government and appealed to the court to review their decision.
Later, in April, on the directives of Memon, the Medical and Health Services Department conducted staff verification of various government hospitals in Karachi. In the exercise, 42 ghost employees were identified at the
Sarfraz Rafiqui Shaheed Hospital.
The medical and health department had initiated action against the employees, whereas 30 other staffers of the hospital deputed in other KMC hospitals, dispensaries and departments were directed to report to the Senior Director Medical and Health Services within three days.