Chandigarh, Feb 9: Three weeks after the state vigilance bureau arrested a salary clerk with the Amritsar public works department (PWD) for withdrawing salaries amounting to Rs 1 crore in the name of two ‘ghost’ sub-divisional officers (SDOs) since 2014, senior officials fear the scam could be much bigger.
Over the past three months, three instances of clerks pocketing the salaries of employees who do not exist (ghost staffers) have been reported across the state.
The amount paid as salaries in these three cases is around Rs 3 crore, according to officials.
This loot comes at a time when the state government is struggling to pay its actual employees.
According to norms, a ‘salary’ clerk with the PWD submits a list of employees for whom salary is to be disbursed to the district treasury. Before it is sent to the treasury, an executive engineer (XEN) verifies the list of employees.
The treasury automatically debits the salary to the accounts of employees on the list.
News Source: www.hindustantimes.com
