Biometric punching in Kerala Govt offices .

Kerala:In an effort to rein in employees who shrik work, biometric punching system will be introduced in all Kerala Goverment offices from Tuesday, the first working day of the year.This will help detect the late arrivals and early leaving of employees,among other benefits.Though the punching machines were already in place in certain institutions,their technology is currently getting updated.The machines were installed at collectorates,directorates and offices of department heads.

cheif secretary VP Joy issued a directive in this regard two weeks ago, which also stipulates that all district collectorates,directorates,and office of department heads should implement the attendance recording system before January1 and link the same to the to the software SPARK(Service and Payroll Administrative Respository for Kerala).The system will be in place of semi -government,local self government and institutions receiving government grant,before March 31 this year.

The cheif Secretary had also directed that each department should entrust the additional secretary or joint secretary to monitor the proper functioning of the punching system.Though the measure,aimed at preventing employees from leaving the office during working hours,was proposed to be implemented several times,the same couldn’t be done so far due to the interference of employee organisations.

Currently, the biometric punching system is efficiently functioning only at the Kerala Government Secretariat. An access control system will be introduced in the Secrateriat from this week in a move aimed at monitoring and restricting the movements of employees and visitors.

One can enter or leave the building only by swiping cards at the entry points.If an employee leaves the office during working hours, he/she will lose the salary.