HYDERABAD: Hyder­abad Municipal Corporation (HMC) administrator has asked Sindh government to probe 1,089 appointments made in HMC in 2009, and recommended transfer of 55 employees from the corporation to councils to lessen financial burden on the cash-strapped civic body.

Administrator Altaf Hussain Sario had in this regard sent letters to the Sindh government, one of which pertained to repatriation of 55 employees to the councils where they had originally been posted, said sources.

In addition, the sources said, he also recommended that 64 employees of Seri union council should be transferred from HMC to other councils located nearer to Hyderabad.

In his July 27 letter submitted to secretary of local government, the administrator gave details of various administrative measures that were affecting the HMC’s financial health and referred to decline in the civic body’s financial resources, deduction in octroi share and absorption of 64 employees of Seri union council in then taluka municipal administration (TMA) of Latifabad.

He explained that while these employees were absorbed the HMC’s octroi share was not raised accordingly, which resulted in serious hiccups in the corporation’s service delivery in the city and Latifabad. The civic body faced such shortfall in revenue it could not even clear liabilities and pay pension on time, he said.

He said that Seri UC was abolished in 2007 and all of its 64 employees were transferred to the then Latifabad TMA, which was now part of HMC, coupled with their octroi tax assessed at Rs2 million.

The HMC kept receiving this share until 2016 and regularly paid salaries to the 64 employees till May 2019. The salaries were stopped later due to serious financial constraints in HMC, he said.

Some of the affected employees took the matter to court by filing a constitutional petition in the Hyderabad circuit bench of the Sindh High Court, which ordered HMC on May 7, 2021, to clear the employees’ dues. The HMC moved Sindh finance department, requesting it to release its share of octroi tax to enable the civic body to clear the outstanding salaries but the request remained unheard till this day, said the administrator.

He informed the LG secretary that several councils’ employees were transferred to HMC after issuance of no-objection certificates (NoC) by the department from time to time, and requested the secretary to cancel all such NoCs as he had relieved all such employees and asked them to report to their parent councils.

The administrator had informed the LG department about appointments of 1,089 employees made in HMC (then TMAs of City and Latifabad) in 2009, many of whose posts were not part of schedule of establishment and the appointments outnumbered sanctioned posts, said the sources, adding that at that time, the appointments were made for two years subject to approval of Sindh government.

The HMC had written letters to the LG department seeking confirmation of the employees but the department did not respond. Out of them, 322 got confirmation letters issued on their own while another 250 were getting salaries as an interim arrangement with the councils’ approval, said the sources.

Another 147 employees got confirmation of their jobs through SHC and the remaining employees either approached the court or submitted applications to HMC, they said.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2021