THE disclosure in a media report on Monday said that during the fiscal 2015-16 Dhaka WASA employees cashed overtime allowances twice as much of their regular salary making many to wonder about the billing system in the government organization. Three thousand Dhaka WASA employees drew Tk 56 crore in a single year as overtime allowance as against their regular salary at Tk.27 crore. It appears that WASA employees are misusing budgetary fund using manifold corruptions, but the departmental audit and the government oversight system are not taking any interest to plug the black holes. The employees are taking tax-payers money without any accountability of anybody at any level.
Such huge billing is evidently breaking all government regulations, which stipulated that overtime allowances of employees in any organization can’t be more than gross salary. It appears that corruption and irregularities in Dhaka WASA are so rampant that they are going now by their own regulation in total disregard to government regulations at work. Most employees are members of the trade union of the ruling party and they are highly indisciplined and recklessly taking away overtime that the management also has to accept. Otherwise there is hardly any scope for so much overtime in a massive scale. Meanwhile, the city is going with a highly faulty water supply and sewerage system that at many places get together causing big treat to public health.
Dhaka WASA is always blamed for digging city streets round the year and more so during the peak rainy season for installation of pipes and sewerage lines making citizens’ life unbearable in many respects. Many believe that such digging could have been carried out more planned way and at certain limited time of the year. It could also reduce people’s suffering and government expenditure. But the hefty overtime billing system suggests that WASA management wishfully finds work for the employees round the year at field level that they use for overtime billing.
As per government rule, an employee can claim 175 hours of monthly overtime and transport drivers for upto 250 hours including weekend. But it should not exceed the gross salary of the employee. But pump operators are reported to have regularly drawn 360 hours overtime allowances, in addition to regular duty in a month in many cases and such undue billing is going unchallenged in a highly charged political environment.
We must say why the WASA management is allowing employees to take so much undue allowances and avoiding standard payment procedure just using a voucher. It may be suggestive that they are conceding to the fake billing because they are also taking the benefit in their way. But we must say the country can’t go this way and how the government can avoid the accountability is also the big question.
