An audit of the Utility Stores Corporation (USC) revealed that 9,756 employees are working for the organisation, whereas only 7,662 is the authorised strength for the 42 regions.
The extra 2,094 employees are a burden on the organisation that is already clash-strapped. Besides, USC never shared details of excess (ghost) employees. The auditors recommended an independent inquiry into the matter of the illegal appointments.
The irregular appointments cost Rs17.5m to the exchequer. It is also an indicates of a weak internal control system at USC.
“The payment of salary to these un-authorised employees for the last several years showed that there was no financial discipline/control in USC budgetary matters and the budget under the head of salary and wages was not being allocated to zonal/regional offices as per sanctioned/available strength,” the report said.
The lack of discipline in budgetary matters has led to such irregularities and false appointments at the regional level. The audit report termed these appointments as “unauthorised.”
On the contrary, the management of USC defended these appointments and said that the request for regularization was submitted to the USC board of directors (BOD).
Besides, several appointments were made when there was a ban imposed on recruitments. The management made 11 appointments in BS15 and 16 on consolidated pay ranging between Rs20,000 to Rs40,000 per month.
These appointments were also not advertised in the newspapers, said the report.
The USC initially suspended these employees and later their services were terminated, but the employees were reinstated on a court order.
The management of the USC further said that since the matter was under probe by NAB, therefore, the internal inquiry had been put on hold to avoid legal complications.
