KARACHI: Sindh Minister Finance Mohammad Younus Dagha has directed the finance department to take immediate measures to clear the dues and payments of retired and serving govt. officials who are suffering due to non-clearance of their dues since past two years.

The minister was told that the cases of more than 20,000 retired government officials have become overdue since the past three years due to low budgeting against the heads of pension commutation, gratuity and LPR.

The liability has soared to Rs.36 billion and the retirees are facing a queue of two years in various District Account offices of the province.

Dagha was chairing a meeting with the officers of the Finance Department at his office to review the working of the District treasuries.

He was briefed that several cases of massive irregularities were found in the district treasuries in which the officials found involved were penalized. However, the system cannot still be termed as foolproof for any such fraud in the future.

Dagha directed the Secretary Finance to remove the ill-reputed treasury officials from their positions and take disciplinary actions against them.

He also directed the senior officials of Finance Department and AG Sindh to engage with IT experts and devise mechanisms to make the computer system effective to check any manipulation in future.

He also directed the IT wing of the Finance Department to prepare and launch a mobile app through which the applicants will be able to avail the services of District accounts office from their homes.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023