Ghaziabad civic body staff to get salary only after work completion certificate

According to Kanchan Verma, GDA’s vice chairperson, the decision has been taken in order to get pending works completed.

The vice chairperson of the Ghaziabad development authority (GDA) has taken administrative decision to link the disbursement of salaries of the authority’s staff and officers to the submission of a monthly certificate stating that they have completed the previous month’s works. The certificates are to be submitted to the respective departmental heads.

The system of submission of work completion certificates will be applicable to all staff members and officers of the GDA. (Sakib Ali / HT Photo)

According to Kanchan Verma, the vice chairperson, the decision has been taken in order to get pending works completed, especially those related to integrated grievance redressal system, single window system and collection of pending revenue works. She said the system will be applicable to all staff members and officers of the authority.

“We have about 850-900 staff and officers out of which about half are supervisors and workmates. Their roles and responsibilities have also been defined and a proposal to this effect was cleared in the recently held board meeting. The salaries of the employees are now linked to clearance of pendency. For instance, for the salaries for the month of August, which are to be released in the first week of September, the staff and officers will have to certify that they have cleared works assigned to them pending up to July 31,” Verma said.

“The clearances will be moved to their departmental heads and will be routed to the finance controller. Thereafter, in consultation with the vice chairperson, the head will clear the respective salaries. We are also going to modify the present salary software to allow payment and leave out specific employees if their work remains pending,” she added.

Verma said she is also considering issuance of a charge-sheet against staff if they fail to complete works for three successive months. She said the salaries to staff amount to about ₹4.5 crore per month and that officials have been asked to expedite the collection of pending payments, among other works.

Officials from the finance department said the salaries for the month of July were delayed and disbursed on August 13, as against the general disbursement dates of fourth or fifth day of the next month, due to pending certificates from staff.

“There has been some resentment amongst officers since salaries got delayed but there is no fund crunch with the authority. On an average, we have about ₹200 crore funds available with us at any point of time, besides ₹500-600 crore of reserves which also include mortgaged ones. We expect around ₹1,600 crore from the sale of unsold properties, besides an annual income of about ₹700- ₹750 crore on account of compounding, sale of plots, rent revenue, etc,” she added.

As of now, the authority has an additional burden of payment of ₹270 crore annually on account of repayment of loans taken for the Hindon elevated road and also on account of about ₹1,100 crore land compensation which was to be paid to farmers for land acquired for the Madhuban Bapudham housing scheme.