BIEK plans to install biometric system by July

Tender notice for procurement of attendance machines placed online

KARACHI: After the successful implementation of the biometric system in the Sindh education and literacy department, the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK) has geared up to install a biometric system to identify ghost employees of the board.

The tender notice for the procurement of the biometric attendance machines has been uploaded on BIEK's official website and also on the Sindh Public Procurement Regulatory Authority website, BIEK Chairperson Prof Inam Ahmed told The Express Tribune.

Ahmed said the board is aiming to implement the biometric verification system for attendance by July. "We want it to be done at its earliest so that ghost employees can be identified," he said, adding that a lot of employees have made a habit of leaving work and some do not even bother to come to office but draw their salaries and utilise all other perks offered by the board.



BIEK employs around 350 employees who will be registered in the biometric system once the tender for the attendance machines is given. "The total cost [of the biometric system] will be around Rs0.1 million as we do not need a huge setup, but just a single system where every employee of the board can sign in and sign out to mark their attendance, which would keep a check on their timings and presence," Ahmed explained.

Speaking about the need for such a system for the board, Ahmed said that before BIEK, the Board of Technical Education has also implemented the biometric system, which was a huge success for them and helped them identify ghost employees.

"We have uploaded the tender notice and are waiting to receive bids, after which the procedure will be started," Ahmed said, adding this system would be a step towards keeping a check and balance on the employees people who do not show up to work.



Other internal staff help ghost employees by entering their attendance manually, Ahmed shared. "Such practices are creating mismanagement in the department on a daily basis," he lamented.

Many employees who do not come to work lie to the managing staff and make excuses for their absences, while a few also have close friendships with each other and often protect their colleagues.

Meanwhile, the education department's initiative of installing the biometric system is 100% complete, covering both teaching and non-teaching staff. "We had monitoring assistants in 14 districts before and recently hired monitoring assistants in the 15 other districts, " shared the head of the communication department, Asghar Soomro.



Soomro also informed that the monitoring and evaluation department is looking after the functioning of the biometric system.

The system helped the education department identify 10,000 ghost employees, which was a huge success in itself. The then secretary of the education department, Fazlullah Pechuho, who initiated the biometric system, confirmed the number of ghost employees in the department.