7 months ago
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During a show audit, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) came crossed thing funny successful the State government’s Service and Payroll Administrative Repository for Kerala (SPARK) database; successful much than 12,000 existent records of authorities employees, the twelvemonth of their commencement oregon the twelvemonth of joining the work was fixed arsenic 1900.
In immoderate cases, the records showed that employees calved successful the 1980s had joined the work successful 1900. In others, it was the different mode around; employees calved successful 1900 were shown arsenic having joined the work successful 1983 and 2006!
This is 1 among the errors and inconsistencies successful SPARK, the integrated accusation strategy that manages worker information successful the Kerala government, that the CAG has flagged successful a show audit study connected Kerala’s Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) (Report No. 4 of 2025) tabled successful the State Legislative Assembly connected Thursday (October 9, 2025).
“In 12,801 records, it was noticed that the twelvemonth of commencement oregon the twelvemonth of the day of joining is 1900,” the CAG study noted. A array with illustrative cases is portion of the report. It besides carried a reply (November 2024) from the authorities that instructions had been issued to fastener each records of each worker successful SPARK “after verifying the aforesaid with the existent information disposable successful the work publication of the worker earlier sanctioning their increment.”
The study mentions 78 records wherever the day of commencement of the worker was the aforesaid arsenic the day of joining authorities service. In 89 records, the day of commencement was aboriginal than the day of joining the service. In 231 instances, the quality betwixt the day of commencement and the day of joining was little than 18 years, implying that the employees successful question had joined the work earlier they turned 18.
Errors successful worker numbers
The CAG has besides flagged errors successful the allotment of Permanent Employee Numbers (PEN) for employees. The strategy allots PEN connected registering an employee. From that constituent onwards, the six-digit PEN serves arsenic the unsocial codification for identifying that worker successful the SPARK database. But the CAG audit revealed that, successful immoderate cases astatine least, that aggregate PENs had been allotted to the aforesaid individual.
And that’s not all. “The audit investigation of the information showed that retired of 8,28,063 worker records, 2,72,076 (33%) records incorporate junk worth successful Permanent Account Number (PAN) tract oregon did not incorporate the details of PAN. The audit besides noticed duplicate PAN values successful 6,374 records,” the study said.
Same PF number
Yet different investigation of the information showed that successful 228 cases nether 30 departments, payrolls for processing the wage were generated for employees who had either near the work oregon died. The CAG has besides flagged 13,409 records having the aforesaid General Provident Fund (Kerala) [GPF] number, successful summation to records with invalid GPF numbers.
The CAG has underscored the request for “validation checks” successful the strategy to guarantee the consistency and accuracy of data.
