Ghost employees scam: Mayor for CBI probe

NEW DELHI: After the Municipal Corporation of Delhi found 22,853 "ghost employees" on its payrolls, the city Mayor on Thursday said the civic agency will recommend a CBI inquiry into the scam that has been causing a loss of Rs 204 crore per year to it.

"We have sent all the related files to the Lt Governor and are requesting him to recommend a CBI probe into the matter," Mayor Kanwar Sain told reporters.

"Meanwhile, I have directed the Commissioner to stop the salary of all those employees who have not been physically verified or have not given their thumb impressions to the authorities. How to do it will be decided by the Commissioner," he said.

After an internal inquiry was conducted by Municipal Commissioner K S Mehra, it was found that MCD has 22,853 employees on its payrolls who are "missing".

The report said while the total employees are 1,27,094, only 1,04,241 have been accounted for. The probe was ordered after the thumb impression-based biometric system of attendance introduced by the civic body in August 2008 and later extended to all MCD zones, brought out a gap in the data given by drawing and disbursing officers and HoDs and the number of employees enrolled in biometric records.

However, there seemed to be divisions within ruling BJP on immediately going for a CBI probe with Leader of the House Subhash Arya saying the Commissioner and Vigilance Department have been first asked to conduct a probe.