No more attendance register in Secretariat, SPARK-linked biometric system fully implemented

The General Administration Department has excluded the attendance register from the Government Secretariat with the implementation of a SPARK-linked biometric punching system.

K R Jyothilal, Additional Chief Secretary, General Administration Department, issued an order citing that the biometric attendance system has been fully implemented and there is no need to record attendance on the register.

The order, however, adds that those staff who have been exempted from the SPARK-linked biometric system shall continue to record their attendance on the register. SPARK is an integrated payroll and accounts information system that calculates the salary of every government employee in the state.

The state government issued a circular in 2023 making biometric punching mandatory for all employees except the Chief Secretary. The circular listed the Secretariat's working hours and admissible leaves and mentions that punching need not be done on occasions when the machine malfunctions.

As per the circular, the Secretariat's working hours will be from 10:15 am to 5.15 pm. Half a day will be calculated for the periods between 10.15 am and 1.15 pm, and 2 pm and 5.15 pm. Employees should punch in and out, with the first and last punches each day being considered for calculating attendance.

Kerala government employees who carry out duties of a special nature are exempted from biometric punching. The punching done by those who work on a shift basis or outside of normal office hours would be delinked from the payroll software in such a way that their salaries won't be cut.