RAWALPINDI: The detection of 50 ghost employees in the Rawalpindi education department has landed the City District Government Rawalpindi (CDGR) in trouble during its last days before the formulation of the new local government.

A senior CDGR official told Dawn that the detection of ghost employees in the department had forced CDGR to halt the salaries of the ghost employees, worth Rs5.5 million, immediately.

He said the 50 fake employees included two in BPS-16, while the rest were in BPS-14 and BPS-9.

Employees detected in Kallar Syedan, salaries halted after Rs500,000 had already been released

He said a group of accounts and educational department clerks and vendors had issued fake domiciles to these people.

The ghost employees were detected in Kallar Syedan, while the Kallar Syedan deputy district officer was checking the recruitment list. The officer contacted the accounts department, and said the employees were not working with him.

Upon this, the district accounts department inspected the documents of employees in BPS-16, BPS-14 and BPS-9. The salaries were stopped immediately, but Rs500,000 had already been released to the ‘employees’.

The CDGR official said the recruitment of the ghost employees appeared on documents from April 2015, but their salaries were released in November and December.

When contacted, Executive District Officer Education Qazi Zahoorul Haq confirmed that the ghost employees were detected in Kallar Syedan, and said the education department had completed its inquiry report and had submitted it to the district coordination officer (DCO).

He said the initial inquiry had revealed that the employees were recruited on fake documents, and officials from the accounts and education departments were involved.

He said his fake signatures were on recruitment letters that he had not issued. He said the accounts office was asked to halt the salaries in question, but the employees had received salaries in November and December.

“The inquiry will be launched by the local administration as soon as the DCO will assign the duty of a senior officer to detect the mafia behind this scam,” he said.

Mr Haq said all the deputy district officers had been asked to prepare lists of employees and check their presence, in order to avoid a similar issue in their respective areas.

He said the department had verified teachers’ degrees and domiciles and issued appointment letters to teachers and staff members after checking with universities and colleges.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2016