Gurugram’s municipal corporation ready with names of ghost workers

Committee members said they received the list of 302 workers from the civic body last weekend and will commence their investigation from next month.

Three months after an investigation by a committee of councillors revealed that 302 out of the 1,950 employees of the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) to whom work was outsourced may not exist in person, the civic body is ready with a list of names of these ‘ghost’ workers and the departments they are shown to be employed with, officials said on Thursday.

A 20-month-long investigation by the MCG committee had found several discrepancies in the civic body’s hiring process. (HT Archive Photo)

The 20-month-long investigation by the MCG investigation committee had found several discrepancies in the hiring process

The probe report, submitted to the civic body on September 7, highlighted that apart from the possibility of 302 ghost workers, there were instances of multiple hiring against one post, needless posts, lopsided deputation of workers and unskilled workers, and appointment on the recommendations of politicians and senior Haryana bureaucrats, among other issues.

Committee members said they received the list of 302 workers from the civic body last weekend and will commence their investigation from next month.

“We have received the list from the MCG via two separate emails and will call each of the unaccounted workers for an interview. If these workers do not turn up, it will confirm our suspicion that there are many posts filled by proxy workers who are drawing monthly salaries from the MCG,” said RS Rathee, councillor of ward 34, who is heading the committee.

“In addition, the skills of the workers will also come under scrutiny as we feel many may not necessarily fulfil the qualifications required for the job, or their posts may not be needed at all,” Rathee said.

Councillors Ravinder Yadav, Braham Prakash, Sanjay Pradhan and Subhash Singla are the other members of the committee.

The members of the investigation committee added that several of the 1,648 workers that were investigated by them were incorrectly represented by the corporation and had, in reality, stopped working with the civic body prior to the commencement of their interview process last year. They were, hence, simply sent to “fill” the numbers, members of the investigation committee have said.

“Soon after the submission of our 126 page investigation report, officials informed us that many workers we interviewed are no longer with the MCG and had been ousted from the civic body prior to the commencement of the interview process. It seems they had been sent by civic officials to simply fill the numbers for the investigation process. We have received the latest list of workers employed with the MCG and will use that as a reference for checking which workers were needlessly interviewed and interview those who have replaced them,” Rathee said.

MCG commissioner, Vinay Pratap Singh, when contacted said he would seek feedback from relevant staff members and then respond.

“The MCG is committed towards achieving complete transparency and ensure there is no malpractice. Hence any information sought by committee members has been provided for further investigation. Based on the findings we will take the next course of action as per the law,” Singh said.