Fudging biometric attendance: 442 erring government employees caught in J&K's Ramban district [details]

The Jammu and Kashmir Government has identified some "over-smart" employees who have been trying to hoodwink higher-ups by using their mobile phones or laptops to fraudulently mark their attendance from their homes by violating the Aadhaar-Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS).

A week after higher-ups of the Education Department identified some employees who were fraudulently marking their attendance from homes through their mobile phones, Deputy Commissioner Ramban has ordered an inquiry against 442 employees of different departments who were marking their bio-matric attendance from mobile phones or laptops.

After detecting some employees who are marking their biometric attendance through fraudulent means, Deputy Commissioner Ramban has ordered the withholding of the salaries of such erring employees.

During random monitoring of biometric attendance of various employees in the departments like School Education, Health, Sheep and Animal Husbandry, Fisheries, Agriculture, Child Welfare Committee Ramban, Sheep and Wool Development Office Banihal, Chief Agriculture Offtce (including Subdivision Ramban/ Gool), it has been observed that employees are marking their biometric attendance away from their offices/ schools by using their mobile phones.

It was observed that a far greater number of employees are fudging their biometric attendance by using mobile phones, for which activation codes are being shared by their respective Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs).

DDOs in connivance with erring employees

From the scrutiny of the gaps observed in the marking of biometric attendance, it has been found that the majority of the DDOs seem to be in connivance with the aforesaid employees. The perusal of biometric attendance data which has been analyzed dearly indicates that marking biometric attendance by using mobile phones is impossible unless activation codes are shared with each one of them.

The UT exchequer has suffered losses as these employees have drawn their salaries for not having performed their official duties.

Taking serious note of the nexus of tempering biometric attendance, Deputy Commissioner Ramban directed DDOs to explain their position by 4.00 pm on 19.05.2023 positively and share details of persons/employees involved in this fraud which is primarily aimed at facilitating the employees to play truant from their official duties, failing which action under rules shall be initiated against DDOs and the employees who are marking their attendance by using their mobiles/laptops aided by DDOs sharing activation codes of their respective office location.

Till further orders, no DDOs of the aforesaid departments as well as the employees caught marking their biometric attendance through mobile phones shall draw their salaries.

Further, DOOs in District Ramban are hereby directed to share device IDs/ details of the employees who are either marking their biometric attendance through laptops or mobiles, enabling this office to proceed further in the matter.

Biometric attendance for J&K govt employees

The Jammu and Kashmir government in November 2022 directed strict adherence to biometric attendance in its offices, PSUs, Institutions, and Corporations and asked Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) to furnish daily Action Taken Report (ATR) in this regard to General Administration Department.

"In terms of Government Order No. 650-JK(GAD) of 2022 dated 02.06.2022, instructions were issued to all Government Offices/PSUs/ Institutions/Corporations across Jammu and Kashmir to switch over to Biometric System (Aadhar or Finger Print Based) with immediate effect and all employees were directed to necessarily mark their attendance both at arrival and departure as per the notified office hours of various offices," reads a circular issued by the government in November 2022.

Further, it said, all Administrative Secretaries/HoDs/Managing Directors of PsUs, Corporations, Institutions were directed to ensure the installation of Biometric Attendance Systems/Equipments in all offices and institutions under their administrative control by or before 15th of June, 2022. All DDOs, it said, were also directed to draw salaries of employees only on the basis of satisfactory biometric attendance.