Goa needs finger scanners for all govt employees

When the dynamic Chairperson of the Margao Municipal Council Mr Savio Coutinho, introduced a new system of attendance recording to ensure a more foolproof method of attendance, he was hawked by all the employees, who even resorted to ridiculous comparisons to terrorist methods, in a bid to eject themselves from the uncomfortable prospect of falling in line.

Why the new system?
The biometric finger scan machine which was installed for daily attendance recording, was meant to regularise faulty systems of attendance registers which were known to be signed by proxies and friends within the employees' circle thereby misusing the system of recording attendance.

Lame Excuses?
What followed the decision, was a vehement opposition from the so-called employees union, which absurdly likened the method to terrorist detections and conveniently called it an anti-employee policy. It thus seems that the employees would like to continue their holiday with the attendance and are simply scared that the new system would clearly expose all their machinations.

While 7 of the employees have agreed to the attendance recording, the others are currently opposing the move and have refused to use the biometric finger scan machine despite circulars to the effect from the Chief Officer to abide by the regulation.

This defiance of the municipality employees clearly shows that they would like to continue with irregularities in their work. Goans who visit these offices regularly find the people concerned, missing from their seats and obviously doing their own jobs and surprise inspections by the authorities in this regard have proven the same.

Memorandum warning action
The Chairperson and the Chief officer have now decided to serve a memorandum on the erring employees warning them about the violation of the council's decision and cautioning them that all salaries will be paid as per the recordings in the attendance report of the scan machine.

Striving for Efficiency
The Chairperson of the Margao Municipal Council should therefore be lauded for being the first person in Goa, in a government establishment to endeavor to wipe out employee inefficiency and the employees who do not adhere to set norms of the council should be punished as per the law of the land.

The rest of the Goan establishment should take a cue from this valuable exercise and should enforce similar methods in all departments to ensure better accountability of employees thereby making the system better governed.