Murad's surprise visit unearths rampant absenteeism in Sindh

Syed Murad Ali Shah finds secretariat officials playing truant, flouting his orders

KARACHI: Flouting the orders of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, members of the provincial bureaucracy proved once again on Monday that they often did not bother coming to their offices, instead working from home.

In a surprise visit to the Sindh Secretariat, the chief minister was dismayed to find most of the department secretaries and their staff absent from work, despite his repeated directives to bureaucrats to adhere to set timings.

According to officials, the secretaries of the irrigation, home, local government, education, agriculture and transport departments, as well as their staff, were absent.

The officials explained that when Shah first took his office in July 2016, he would frequently visit the secretariat and take action against absentees. At first, officers who habitually came to work late and left early became more punctual.  But now, with no check on them, they have reverted to their old practices.

“Since senior officials, such as the secretaries and additional secretaries, remain absent, their staff too refuse to take the timings seriously,” an official working in the Sindh services, general administration and coordination department said.

When Shah reached the secretariat at 10am, he went to the home secretary’s office, said sources. Not only was the official missing, so were his additional secretaries, deputy secretaries and other staff. According to sources, the home secretary hardly ever comes to work on time, and so his staff too avails the opportunity to arrive late.

When the CM expressed his displeasure, the home department’s private secretary reportedly told him that the bureaucrat had gone to court. Shah demanded a report on the matter. A senior official familiar with past instances of the same matter, though, said that this would just be a formality, with hardly any bureaucrat taking action against their colleagues.

When Shah made his way to other departments’ offices, he was astonished to see the same situation there, with the secretaries and senior staff absent. Only the labour secretary was present.

At the planning and development department, Shah was happy to find the chairperson, Wasim Ahmed, present; however, even there, many senior staff members were absent. A CM House spokesperson said that Shah appreciated Ahmed’s presence in the office, and asked him to provide a detailed report about absentees in his department.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 11^th, 2020.