KNZ NEWS DESK
Jammu, Jan 14: The Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department has reportedly paid Rs 12 crore as leave salary to retired and expired employees without preparing required leave accounts in violation of Jammu and Kashmir Civil Service Leave Rules.
Moreover, the required appraisal report of Gazetted staff of the department had not been submitted to Human Resources Management branch regularly due to which the performance the employees could not be assessed properly.
Sources said that the Gazetted staff of the Public Engineering Department, which was required to furnish appraisal reports annually to Human Resources Management branch had not submitted the same on regular basis.
“In many divisions the appraisal reports were not being obtained from the field staff and in respect of ministerial staff these were obtained at the time of constitution of Departmental Promotion Committees only,” they said further adding that due to absence of appraisal report, the department was unable to assess performance of staff and provide them appropriate feedback and guidance for correcting their deficiencies in timely manner.
They said that according to Rule 16 of Jammu and Kashmir Civil Service Leave Rules 1979 which envisages that Leave accounts are required to be maintained for each Government servant by the Head of Office or the DDO as the case may be. “Leave account had not been maintained in respect of the employees presently working as well as officials who had since retired. During 2011 to 2016, an amount of Rs 12 Cr was paid to 700 retired/ expired employees of the 13 divisions as cash in lieu of leave salary for maximum limit of 300 days without preparing the required leave account in the prescribed proforma,” they said. Instead of taking correcting measures to streamline the system, the department continuously making the excuse of shortage of staff for not maintaining leave accounts, they added.
