AP Secretariat: Poor attendance on Fridays, Mondays

Vijayawada: The attendance of employees in the Secretariat is poor on Fridays and Mondays compared to other days.  On Friday, only 77 per cent of attendance is seen, while only 36 per cent of employees attend their duties on time before 10 am, while the other 44 per cent attend around 10.30 am and the remaining 20 per cent attend duties after 11 am. Even the exit of employees from office duties on Fridays is higher. By evening before 5 pm 43 per cent of employees had left  the Secretariat  while the other 36 per cent left before 6 pm —  the office timings are 10 am to 5.30 pm!

The remining 20 per cent are in office until 7 pm. Even on Mondays the delay in attending duties is witnessed on par with Fridays. On the first day of the year, that is on January 1, 58 per cent attendance was witnessed and only 30 per cent attended before 11 am on the very same day. The reasons behind this uneven attendance of employees is observed due to the five-day week working pattern and most of the employees’ families who still reside in Hyderabad. This had a drastic impact on the employees work performance and attendance patterns.

The Secretariat is the heart of the administration in the state. Out of 31 departments, 2,050 employees work daily on state affairs and play key roles in administration. Their performance has an impact on  the state performance. The state government is even implementing a biometric attendance system for effective work performance. Even the Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu reiterated that though it is a friendly government, work performance and attendance are key indicators.

Even special benefits are provided to employees after  the bifurcation as families are residing in Hyderabad. The benefits are: special transportation with trains, boarding, five-day work pattern and others. Secretariat employees’ association president, U. Murali Krishna accepted the  uneven timings on Fridays and Mondays as most of the employees’ families are still in Hyderabad, but during Assembly sessions and other important times the employees are working round the clock, irrespective of the timings. As the e-files system is used, now the employees are attending their duties at times of need through weekends and expressed his hope of maintaining timings in future after the employees’ families are shifted to AP.