On Monday, the Union government launched a biometric attendance system to keep a tab on the whereabouts of central government bureaucrats during work hours.
Though some officials have been encouraged by this development, the initiative is – predictably – a nightmare for most.
All central government employees, and those of the Delhi state government, will be given a six-digit attendance identification number. The employee will be required to enter the number on their terminal, following which the system will ask for fingerprint verification or an iris scan. Those travelling to other government departments or on official tours will be able to mark their attendance at the entry gate of the government office they are visiting.
For example, a bureaucrat at the Ministry of Finance who is meeting the minister for defence and finance, Arun Jaitley, at the defence ministry in North Block, can mark her attendance on the Aadhaar-linked machine installed at the entry gate.
The website also allows the Prime Minister’s Office to monitor the whereabouts of each individual official during the day. An employee who leaves before lunch for an official meeting at another department will have to enter his ID at that department’s entrance. This will show where a bureaucrat was at what time.
The site also allows anyone with internet access to use the website to track the whereabouts of the officials. It is this transparency that has most rattled government officials in the capital.
Proxy attendance
Does one need to go to office to be marked present? Proxy attendance was a regular practice at the Ministry of Agriculture until the new attendance system was introduced. A senior official at the administrative wing in Krishi Bhavan revealed that there was a junior clerk who did not come to office for five years, but his attendance was marked in the attendance diary every day.
“This is not an exceptional case,” he said. “A lot of junior level officials have vanished for a month or more and their attendance has been marked by their colleagues. With the biometric system in place, the proxy attendance culture will come to an end.”
Why just attendance?
An official at the Home ministry’s chief controller of accounts questioned the “corporate” method of monitoring government officials. He said that if the government wants to behave like a corporation it should also introduce aspects like rewards and recognition.
“If one comes on time and clocks the necessary hours without being productive, what good is that?” said Rohit Sonkar, an officer in the home ministry's accounting office. “If the government really wants to increase productivity, they need to develop a holistic human resource policy, including a productivity monitoring system, yearly evaluation of performance and promotions according to performance and not tenure.”
Is it viable?
Just putting the attendance system in place will not be enough. The administration also needs diligent monitoring, surprise checks and implementing disciplinary measures if an employee fails to comply with the new system, bureaucrats say.
“The central government has taken steps in the past to ensure productivity of government officials, but none of them have ever worked because the monitoring bodies in offices have themselves been incompetent,” an under-secretary at the law ministry told Scroll.
Metro rush
Since the biometric attendance system has been in place, there has reportedly been a mad scramble at the Central Secretariat metro station between 9 and 9.30 am every working morning. Thousands of employees from across the city are converging on the station to make sure that they make it to their desks on time.
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Though some officials have been encouraged by this development, the initiative is – predictably – a nightmare for most.
All central government employees, and those of the Delhi state government, will be given a six-digit attendance identification number. The employee will be required to enter the number on their terminal, following which the system will ask for fingerprint verification or an iris scan. Those travelling to other government departments or on official tours will be able to mark their attendance at the entry gate of the government office they are visiting.
For example, a bureaucrat at the Ministry of Finance who is meeting the minister for defence and finance, Arun Jaitley, at the defence ministry in North Block, can mark her attendance on the Aadhaar-linked machine installed at the entry gate.
The website also allows the Prime Minister’s Office to monitor the whereabouts of each individual official during the day. An employee who leaves before lunch for an official meeting at another department will have to enter his ID at that department’s entrance. This will show where a bureaucrat was at what time.
The site also allows anyone with internet access to use the website to track the whereabouts of the officials. It is this transparency that has most rattled government officials in the capital.
Proxy attendance
Does one need to go to office to be marked present? Proxy attendance was a regular practice at the Ministry of Agriculture until the new attendance system was introduced. A senior official at the administrative wing in Krishi Bhavan revealed that there was a junior clerk who did not come to office for five years, but his attendance was marked in the attendance diary every day.
“This is not an exceptional case,” he said. “A lot of junior level officials have vanished for a month or more and their attendance has been marked by their colleagues. With the biometric system in place, the proxy attendance culture will come to an end.”
Why just attendance?
An official at the Home ministry’s chief controller of accounts questioned the “corporate” method of monitoring government officials. He said that if the government wants to behave like a corporation it should also introduce aspects like rewards and recognition.
“If one comes on time and clocks the necessary hours without being productive, what good is that?” said Rohit Sonkar, an officer in the home ministry's accounting office. “If the government really wants to increase productivity, they need to develop a holistic human resource policy, including a productivity monitoring system, yearly evaluation of performance and promotions according to performance and not tenure.”
Is it viable?
Just putting the attendance system in place will not be enough. The administration also needs diligent monitoring, surprise checks and implementing disciplinary measures if an employee fails to comply with the new system, bureaucrats say.
“The central government has taken steps in the past to ensure productivity of government officials, but none of them have ever worked because the monitoring bodies in offices have themselves been incompetent,” an under-secretary at the law ministry told Scroll.
Metro rush
Since the biometric attendance system has been in place, there has reportedly been a mad scramble at the Central Secretariat metro station between 9 and 9.30 am every working morning. Thousands of employees from across the city are converging on the station to make sure that they make it to their desks on time.
