PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa livestock secretary Zareeful Mani on Monday ordered an investigation into the alleged proxy attendance, questionable records of milk production, lack of cleanliness and threats to animal health at the government-owned Harichand cattle breeding and dairy farm in Charsadda district.

He also issued orders for the immediate introduction of a digital attendance system, improvement in cleanliness and adherence to biosecurity protocol at the farm.

The development came following a visit of the secretary to the facility.

Established in the early 2000s at more than 500 acres of land, the farm has cattle farm units, cow sheds, feed processing arrangements and cattle semen processing unit.

Says facility should introduce digital attendance system, adhere to biosecurity protocol

“The secretary livestock and fisheries is pleased to constitute the fact-finding inquiry committee to inquire into the issues highlighted in (his) tour/inspection note of the official tour,” read a notification.

It added that the committee consisted of deputy secretary of the department Ishaq Ahmad as the chairman and director (poultry health and production) Dr Habibur Rehman and senior research officer at the Veterinary Research Institute Dr Hameedullah as members.

According to the terms of reference, the committee will “dig out the issues highlighted in the inspection note, make an overall administrative and financial audit of the Harichand farm and suggest a transformative plan including short term and long-term solutions to the issues.”

During a visit to the farm, officials found the overall state of cleanliness, hygiene and upkeep to be pathetic and below acceptable standards for a livestock facility, according to an official report.

It added that the farm had around 40 staff members for cleanliness but only two of them were found to be working during the visit, showing serious negligence, weak supervision and ineffective deployment.

The officials also declared staff attendance “casual and poorly controlled” and said attendance verification indicated that several individuals on rolls were not present on duty, while many daily-wage labourers and positions were suspected to be “ghost or non-genuine”.

They complained that records of the attendance of casual workers were not provided despite repeated requests, entailing ghost or non-genuine casual labourers.

The officials voiced serious concern regarding proxy attendance, noting absent employees are marked present by proxies and that the persons working as daily wagers also reportedly perform proxy attendance roles, creating an arrangement of double benefit/double payment wage plus proxy-linked salary or benefit.

They complained that attendance was marked by the office clerk and not staff members and that in multiple cases, staff members were marked present despite their physical absence from the premises.

The officials noted that despite repeated requests, the file of the Livestock Breed Improvement Project was not provided, while the project under the leadership of the then project director was found to be deserted or abandoned.

According to them, the associated building, equipment and infrastructure were found to be in dilapidated and pathetic condition, indicating lack of stewardship and absence of maintenance planning. Also, sheds for 100 animals were closed, while milking parlours were non-functional and in pathetic condition.

The officials noted that aRs5 million power generator was missing from the project site, indicating a major lapse in asset control and required immediate verification, record examination and fixing of responsibility.

They also raised doubts about milk production figures and recordkeeping and said the management failed to provide satisfactory evidence and reconciliation of production, distribution and related registers.

The officials noted that records weren’t maintained for the production and sale of milk at the farm, while the room designated for the supervisor of the milking unit was locked, with the supervisor absent from duty.

They said 81 animals were milked at the farm with reported daily production of around 600 litres of milk, raising serious questions about the transparency and actual milk production.

The officials observed that milk was sold for Rs160 per litre but handwritten notes highlighted “doubtful” milk records, deposits and claims, and a lack of transparent reconciliation mechanisms.

They said the farm exhibited a complete and alarming disregard for established biosecurity protocols and fundamental human safety measures.

This negligence creates a high-risk environment that threatens animal health, compromises the integrity of biological products (sperm and milk) and exposes employees to significant occupational hazards, according to them.

The report said that in order to address these critical vulnerabilities and ensure proper fiduciary control, there was an immediate need for digitisation of the accounting system to maintain real-time records of all inventories, sales and expenses, eliminating manual ledger dependence.

It called for the establishment of a revolving fund or imprest account of a fixed amount for routine operational expenses, saying the fund should be replenished periodically based on authenticated expenditure statements and reconciled against farm income.

The report said a better alternative would make the facility autonomous to generate income and meet expenditures from its own accounts with surplus only going to the treasury.

It called for mandatory monthly reconciliations between physical stock, sales records, cash and bank records and treasury receipts and said quarterly internal audit reviews were required by the directorate to ensure compliance and rectify process gaps.

“These steps will segregate duties, create a clear audit trail, ensure timely deposit of public money and provide a sustainable model for meeting operational expenses,” emphasised the report.

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2026