The Control and Investigation Board has found that about 20 percent of government employees did not show up for work on Tuesday, a day before beginning of the Eid holidays – with the absentee rate reaching 92.3 percent in one authority, sources said. Results of the investigation, which found 68,639 people were absent, forced officials to consider implementing palm-print authentication of attendance to limit absenteeism on last working days before official holidays, sources said. Absentees will be referred to authorities for measures to be taken against them, source said. According to the current system, employees who are absent on the last day before the holiday are counted as being absent for one day, while absence on the first day of work after the Eid holiday is counted as two days' absence. Sources said the palm-print system would likely be implemented after inspectors found defects in the current system of monitoring work attendance. A large number of employees sign in the column for leaving the office the next day when they arrive to sign in for a new day and some people sign in and out for their absent colleagues. Sources said that because daily inspections cannot cover all government offices, the palm-print system would be linked with the CIB. Women's sections in numerous government authorities need effective supervision and the CIB cannot impose the system due to the small number of women's jobs, sources added. Meanwhile, the CIB disclosed that a number of government agencies are not implementing Paragraph 2 of Article 10 of the end-of-service regulation, which stipulates that employees can be terminated if they are absent for 15 consecutive days or 30 separate days in one year. The CIB also noticed that several government authorities are ignoring the regulation regarding disciplinary action against employees who are repeatedly absent. A number of government authorities also ignore the Civil Service regulation stipulating that employees should not be paid for days they are absent, according to sources. The CIB carried out 13,634 tours covering 28 ministries and government authorities. These tours covered 888,705 employees and 68,639 cases of absenteeism were detected. The percentage of absenteeism in government authorities ranged between 92.3 percent and 7.7 percent, investigators said. The CIB investigators also found that some employees who received transportation allowances improperly used official vehicles and in some cases used them after work, which is a violation punishable by the law.
