The salaries of employees in 42 government departments in Kendrapara have been withheld after they failed to implement the OSWAS (Odisha Secretariat Workflow Automation System), despite repeated official directives. The action was taken by the District Collector, Raghuram R Iyer, on Friday, following a review of the OSWAS usage across district-level offices.
According to official records, the state government had issued an instruction three months ago mandating all offices to operate through the digital workflow system. Out of 122 offices, only 80 had begun working on OSWAS, leaving the remaining 42 departments functioning manually, which is a violation of the government order.
Viewed against this backdrop of long, continuing non-compliance, the Collector instructed that the salary of employees of defaulting departments should be withheld until they commence and complete the assigned work through OSWAS. The administration explained that the decision was indispensable to ensure proper implementation of digital governance, streamline file movement, and ensure more transparency in service delivery.
The Collector has indicated that salaries will be released only after the departments commence functioning on OSWAS as per the government’s mandate.
Meanwhile, the District Agriculture Officer explained that most of the staff had not undergone sufficient training on the OSWAS platform, which made it difficult to operate the system. He said that due to the lack of sufficient training, adjustment to the new workflow on this digital platform was difficult.
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