City district government: 400 workers unemployed as contracts end
Most of them were employed by relatives and were adding to dept's expenses.
KARACHI:
The contracts of nearly 400 workers with the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) have ended, rendering them unemployed for now.
CDGK municipal services department EDO Masood Alam told The Express Tribune that the CDGK does not have any policy to renew contracts at the moment.
Around 47 retired workers, who were offered jobs on a 12-month contract, were also told to go home. An official revealed that most of these workers were hired by influential officials, who offered them monthly salaries, ranging between Rs10,000 and Rs25,000 with additional perks, such as fuel and conveyance allowances. This practice started around February this year, he added.
The official explained that the department’s decision to not renew their contracts will save money. The 47 officials, in grade 17 and above, were reemployed on contracts but they continued to receive their monthly salaries. They were also allowed to use their official cars and cost the department Rs10 million every year.
One month ago, the Karachi DCO formed a committee to oversee this issue. The committee is headed by the CDGK works and services department EDO Engineer A Rasheed Mughal while the veterinary district officer Rasheed Jamal, land-I district officer Saif Abbas and district officers Jamil are members of the committee.
The committee recommended that instead of rehiring old employees it should promote lower grade officers and employees instead of ones retiring. It suggested that the department will save money this way. The committee has asked the departmental heads to submit their demands for the hiring of additional contractual employees, if they feel a lack of workers will affect their department’s performance. No new inductee will be allowed to receive any gains of any nature except for their fixed salary per month, the committee clarified. The official said that contractual workers in some departments were exempted. These include the Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases (KIHD) and CDGK complaint cell 1339.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 30th, 2010.
The contracts of nearly 400 workers with the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) have ended, rendering them unemployed for now.
CDGK municipal services department EDO Masood Alam told The Express Tribune that the CDGK does not have any policy to renew contracts at the moment.
Around 47 retired workers, who were offered jobs on a 12-month contract, were also told to go home. An official revealed that most of these workers were hired by influential officials, who offered them monthly salaries, ranging between Rs10,000 and Rs25,000 with additional perks, such as fuel and conveyance allowances. This practice started around February this year, he added.
The official explained that the department’s decision to not renew their contracts will save money. The 47 officials, in grade 17 and above, were reemployed on contracts but they continued to receive their monthly salaries. They were also allowed to use their official cars and cost the department Rs10 million every year.
One month ago, the Karachi DCO formed a committee to oversee this issue. The committee is headed by the CDGK works and services department EDO Engineer A Rasheed Mughal while the veterinary district officer Rasheed Jamal, land-I district officer Saif Abbas and district officers Jamil are members of the committee.
The committee recommended that instead of rehiring old employees it should promote lower grade officers and employees instead of ones retiring. It suggested that the department will save money this way. The committee has asked the departmental heads to submit their demands for the hiring of additional contractual employees, if they feel a lack of workers will affect their department’s performance. No new inductee will be allowed to receive any gains of any nature except for their fixed salary per month, the committee clarified. The official said that contractual workers in some departments were exempted. These include the Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases (KIHD) and CDGK complaint cell 1339.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 30th, 2010.