On the first day of Ramadan, the Control and Investigation Board found high rate of absenteeism when it increased inspections throughout the Kingdom to ensure that government employees follow the holy month's schedule, which calls for five hours of work, from 10 A.M. to 3 P.M. Official sources said inspectors found lapses in a number of government authorities, particularly those providing services to the public. The organizations include branches of the Civil Status, Labor Department, Passports Department and Social Insurance offices and branches of the Ministry of Commerce. Inspectors detected cases of absenteeism exceeding 30 percent of employees in a number of government administrations, sources said. An Okaz/Saudi Gazette tour Wednesday of several government offices found that a number of employees had been late in arriving to work. The tour also found a big drop in the number of people visiting the Civil Status Office, Labor Office, Recruitment Office, Passports Department and Social Insurance. Most offices had no people seeking services during the day's last working hour; a small number of people visited these offices during the first few hours of the working day.
