MCG begins crackdown on ‘illegal’ appointments in outsourced agencies

The MCG outsources work to private agencies and pays the salaries to workers engaged by it. Outsourced workers under scanner include computer clerks, sewer men, gardeners, helpers, supervisors, and lab technicians.

The municipal corporation of Gurugram (MCG) has begun a crackdown on irregular appointments made in agencies to which it has outsourced work.

File photo of Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon(MCG) office. The civic body has begun a crackdown on irregular appointments made in agencies to which it has outsourced work.(HT Photo)

As part of the process, the civic body had earlier sent out a questionnaire to these workers and later called them in for an interview.

In the questionnaire, a copy of which is with Hindustan Times, workers were asked to fill in basic details such as their name, name of their father, address, date of birth, date of joining the MCG, and also list out their references for the job, the work they have been tasked with, their reporting officer, sitting place and under whose department are they placed.

“Over the last four months, we have circulated the questionnaire to 2,099 outsourced workers. We have interviewed around 50 people so far since Tuesday,” said independent councillor of ward 34, RS Rathee, who had raised a concern that the MCG was employing “excess” outsourced workers, before the House meeting on January 17. Rathee is chairperson of a five-member comittee that is looking into the issue. “In the interview, they were asked to further describe the works they have carried out, specifying in which capacity.”

“The process is expected to be completed by early next month following which a consolidated report of all the finding and concerns of discrepancies will be submitted to the senior MCG officials for review,” said Rathee.

Although Rathee did not disclose the findings of the committee so far, it is learnt that discrepancies —such as one wing having multiple outsourced workers for a job that required just one — which one could suffice have crept up.

During his communication before the house, Rathee had referred to previous instances of ghost workers being found in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) in the past, without specifying details.

On May 17, in another house meeting, the issue was once again raised by Rathee, following which the committee was formed compromising Rathee, ward 3 councillor Ravinder Yadav, ward 13 councillor Brham Prakash, ward 14 councillor Sanjay Pradhan and ward 18 councillor Subhash Singla.

The MCG outsources work to private agencies and pays the salaries to workers engaged by it. Outsourced workers under scanner are computer clerks, sewer men, gardeners, helpers, supervisors, bouncers (for enforcement team), junior engineers, consultants, guards, pump operators, pump attendants, drivers, mail distributors, and lab technicians.

“Like most municipal corporations across the country, the MCG is also functioning on a limited sanctioned strength and as per the government policy, the civic body has outsourced many posts in different departments,” said Yashpal Yadav, MCG commissioner.

Yadav said that when took over, he had asked officials to reassess the strength of outsourced workers, and found it to be insufficient. “We have submitted relevant details to the committee for assessment. If their findings justify that the MCG has excess outsource staff, changes will be initiated,” he said.

In January, when the issue was raised, the agency outsourcing the workers was VSS enterprises whose tenure ended in April and has now been taken over by MI2C enterprises.

The 2099 outsourced workers do not include the 1800 outsourced sanitation workers, which have been hired through four separate agencies by the MCG per ward. During the wave of protests by sanitation workers across Haryana in May, MCG officials had audited all outsourced sanitation workers.