Thiruvananthapuram: A surprise inspection by Minister P A Mohammed Riyas at the Public Works Department (PWD) Chief Architect's office here on Thursday revealed that most of the employees had not turned up even at 11am.

The check was carried out based on a tip-off that employees were not arriving in the office on time. Apart from the Chief Architect’s office, the Minister examined the registers at some other related offices located in the Public Office Complex. The Minister was furious not only over the absence of employees at 11 am, but also because the punching register was not available even 20 minutes after he had demanded it.

At the office, Riyas inspected the movement register, casual leave register, cash declaration, stock register and punching statement. He took a note of the total staff strength of the offices, the employees who submitted leave applications and the number of employees who were on unauthorized leave.

Among the anomalies noticed by the Minister was a single entry in the cash register. As discrepancies were found in the punching statements, Riyas directed the PWD’s vigilance section to probe the matter. The Minister also gave instructions to immediately link the biometric punching system at the Chief Architect’s office with ‘Spark’, the salary software.

“Complaints were received that employees were leaving the office after punching. The staff are coming to the office and going somewhere as they wish. The e-office facility also is not functioning properly,” said the Minister.

“During many meetings, I had asked the staff at this office to implement full-fledged punching. The employees had told me that everything was fine at the office. But, when I carried out the inspection personally, it is seen that nothing is right here,” added the Minister.

“The government is engaged in efforts to ensure time-bound completion of PWD’s projects as well as transparency, for which the employees have to come to the office on time and carry out their work,” said Riyas.

“Moreover, issues raised by people could be solved only if the employees do the work allotted to them. We will not tolerate any indiscipline in this regard,” the Minister told reporters after the inspection.