PWD Minister P.A. Mohamed Riyas at the office of the Chief Architect of the Public Works Department during a surprise inspection in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: S. MAHINSHA
A surprise inspection carried out by Minister for Public Works P.A. Mohamed Riyas at the office of the Chief Architect of the Public Works Department working in the Public Office Complex here on Thursday, following complaints, found a slew of irregularities in the functioning of the office. After unearthing irregularities in the punching statement, the Minister directed the Vigilance wing of the Public Works Department to look into it.
Although it was decided to link the biometric punching system with the SPARK software earlier, it was not implemented in the office of the Chief Architect. The Minister said the inspection was conducted following a complaint that some employees were skipping work after punching in and then going out. Discrepancies were also found in the arrival and departure of employees in the office during the inspection. Further, e-office filing was not working properly, the Minister noted.
Report sought
In the previous meetings, the employees said that everything was going well in the office, but on direct inspection, it was found that many things were in shambles, the Minister said. He directed the Public Works Secretary to provide a report on the actions taken on the discrepancies found during the inspection. The Minister also sought a report detailing the places visited by the employees in other districts for official purposes, steps that were taken there and whether second and third stage visits were required.
The Minister also checked movement register, casual leave register, cash declaration, stock register, and punching statement, apart from the total number of employees in the office, the number of employees who took leave in writing and the number of employees who took unauthorised leave. On inspection, it was also found that there was only one entry in the cash register.
