HYDERABAD, Jan 14: Around 412 employees of the district government are being paid salaries without performing duties as they have not been absorbed in different local governments formed under the Sindh Local Government Ordinance 2001.
Enquiries by this correspondent also showed on Monday that liabilities, assets, properties and funds of the defunct Hyderabad district council had not been transferred to the district government as the district fund was yet to be created.
Sources said it amounted to violation of the SLGO by the district government officers as the list of these employees was not forwarded to the local government department.
They said according to section 196 of the SLGO 2001, after promulgation of the new ordinance, municipal corporations, district councils, municipal committees, town committees and union councils created under the SLGO 1979 would stand dissolved.
The SLGO 2001 had set June 30, 2002, as the deadline to complete the transition to the local government and give effect to provisions of the ordinance.
However, it has not been done so far as the defunct district council continued to exist and the district government's finance department continued to allocate funds for the defunct council.
In the annual budget for 2003-04, the finance department allocated more than Rs83 million under this head. It was in spite of the fact that district council convener Nawab Rashid Ali Khan had given ruling that no separate budget could be prepared for the defunct district council.
The sources said section 180 of the ordinance had made it clear that properties, assets and liabilities of local councils under the SLGO, 1979, should be succeeded by the district government.
After the introduction of the SLGO, 2001, services of employees of local councils were to be utilized for meeting shortfall at offices of district councils, district Nazims, taluka councils, taluka municipal administrations and union administrations.
However, this has not been done in Hyderabad and around 412 employees of the defunct district council are in surplus pool. Of these employees, around 200 were working in the tax branch, general branch, engineering branch, accounts and dispensaries of the defunct district council. These also included officials from the Sindh Council unified grade service, rural development department, who were from Sindh government departments and were to be relieved accordingly.
The sources maintained that if there was no vacancy for the surplus staff then, under section 183(2) of the 2001 SLGO, it was up to the Sindh government to ensure payment of salaries and pensions to the employees.
It has also been brought on record that the district coordination officer of Hyderabad, through a letter from the local government department dated March 1, 2003, was required to furnish details of surplus employees of the defunct district council so that their adjustments could be finalized. However, the DCO has sent no such details to the local government department.
The Sindh finance department had asked district Nazims and DCOs about a year back to establish district funds in pursuance of section 107 of the 2001 SLGO but such a fund is yet to created in Hyderabad. The Hyderabad District Council in a resolution had also demanded creation of the district fund in accordance with the SLGO.
When contacted, the EDO, finance, Sikandar Ali Shah, said the issues pertaining to the defunct district council's assets and surplus staff were being sorted out as some guidelines were still awaited. As soon as the guidelines were issued, the problems would be resolved, he added.