Access control system to come into force in secretariat from April 1

Thiruvananthapuram: In a major move, the government has decided to implement access control system in the secretariat from April 1. It will be implemented for two months in the pilot phase.The authority will link the access control system with biometric attendance software after considering the suggestions.

The general administration department will be in charge of the access control system implementation. The system will be launched with the aim to monitor the movements of the staff. The office time starts at 10.15 am and concludes at 5.15 pm. Once, the system comes into force, no employees will be able to leave the office during office hours other than lunch break. Meanwhile, the pro-CPM labour union- Secretariat Employees Association has marked their protest over linking the access control system with SPARK. They alleged that this move will treat the employees like hostages.

Biometric punching system in all govt offices
The Kerala government will make biometric punching system mandatory in all government offices. As per the previous order, the system should come into force in all government offices before March 31, 2023.

Chief Secretary VP Joy has raised strong criticism against the officials including district collectors for non-implementation of the system in their offices. While addressing a meeting summoned for reviewing taluk level adalats, the chief secretary declared that biometric punching system must be made mandatory in all government offices. Issuing an ultimatum, he noted that no salary will be given to the employees in the offices where biometric punching system is not come into force.
In an order issued in December 2022, the chief secretary asked all collectorates, directorates and offices of the department heads to implement biometric punching system and link it with Service and Payroll Administrative Repository or SPARK before January 1, 2023.

SPARK is an integrated payroll and accounts information system that calculates the salary of every government employee in the state.

As per the order, the punching system should be implemented in all government offices before March 31. Though the system came into force in all district collectorates, the majority of the offices in the state didn't speed up the implementation yet. So far only 665 offices implemented the punching system and linked it with SPARK. A nodal officer was also appointed for enacting the biometric attendance system in the offices of the departmental chiefs. This official was in charge of linking the attendance system with SPARK. At the same time, the government inquiry found that some offices implemented the punching system but didn't link it with SPARK.