Thousands of employees of the defunct Karachi Development Authority (KDA) are waiting for the payment of their monthly salary after a lapse of almost a month, Business Recorder reliably learnt on Tuesday. The city government had failed to resolve the salary issue and thousands of employees are in great tension thinking how to run their kitchens.
The sources on the other hand accused the city government of transferring the amount, received on account of their salaries from the Sindh Government, to its contractors, depriving their employees of their monthly salaries. "The government is not releasing our salaries despite having enough money in its account," an employee of defunct KDA told this reporter.
The employees of defunct Karachi Development Authority (KDA) had also been demanding leave encashment for the last four years, as they were not paid that since 2004. The sources claimed that the government had managed Rs 320 million in terms of salaries of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) employees but they do not have Rs 60 million for the employees of KDA. They also claimed of releasing salaries for the month of December 2008 to only 40 percent employees out of 4700.
"The issue is not new, we are facing the same for the last few years. We even could not think about getting the salaries before 10 to 15th of the month," an employee from Master Planning Group of Officers (MPGO) department said.
Talking to Business Recorder, Munawar Imam, Executive District Officer (EDO) of finance department said that due to Rs 91.9 million decrease in the funds released to CDGK in January 2009, by Sindh Government, the city government was facing problems in disbursing the employees' salaries.
He said that due to the decrease of Rs 33 million in the monthly fund of the city government by Sindh Government in the current fiscal year the actual amount was Rs 875 million per month, whereas the government had been receiving Rs 908 million monthly in the fiscal year 2007-2008.
According to the EDO out of the received funds, Rs 675 million is being spent on utility bills, repair works and stationery etc and salaries of 70,000 employees of different departments of the city government like education, health, agriculture etc. The balance of Rs 200 million is used towards the annual development programs.
He said that the city government has been receiving another fund of Rs 284 million monthly from Sindh Government, which is used to paying the salaries of the employees of defunct (KDA) and KMC. But the total payable salaries are Rs 420 million and CDGK has to generate the additional Rs 13.5 million to cater to the monthly salaries of these employees.
Sindh Government, he said, has also increased the salaries and pensions of the government employees by 20 percent. EDO said that due to the said decrease in the city government's funds it was facing lots of problems in term of releasing the monthly salaries and payments to the contractors.
He said as the current financial crisis has hit the domestic and international markets, there was also a drastic decline in the income of the city government from its commercialisation activities and it was unlikely to make requisite additional Rs 13.5 million to pay the basic salaries of its employees.
Rejecting the allegation of paying most of the amounts to the contractors the EDO said that the government's first priority was to pay the salaries of its employees. "However, we have managed to pay the salaries of KDA employees for the month of December 2008 and issued checks today."