Wasa drowning in overtime bills

Almost all of the 3,500 lower tier employees of Dhaka Wasa drew more than twice the amount of their basic salaries as overtime in the last fiscal year, according to Wasa insiders.

In 2015-16, they drew Tk 56 crore as overtime while their basic wage was Tk 27 crore.

With the new pay scale effective from July this year, the amount of such overtime payments might hit Tk 80 to 90 crore, which would throw the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority's financial discipline into disarray, they feared.

Only the lower tier employees like pump and filter operators, their assistants, and drivers can charge overtime. Some 400 Wasa officers are not entitled to overtime, Wasa sources said.

Recent media reports on Wasa's financial indiscipline prompted the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to issue a letter to the Local Government Division (LGD) in August, asking it to submit information about the Wasa overtime bills within 10 working days, said an LGD official.

On August 22, the LGD issued a letter to Wasa, asking it to submit a report on the overtime expenditure.

Six days later, Wasa Managing Director Taqsem A Khan informed the LGD that they were looking into the matter. He added that they had sought explanations from the employees who submitted excess overtime bills.

But the Wasa MD could not immediately say how his institution had sanctioned such fat overtime payments for months, and whether they had, at all, tried to prevent it.

Taqsem also mentioned that they were assessing a contract signed between Wasa and CBA leaders.

Last month, the Wasa sent a reply to the LGD.

The state-run agency in its reply said there were some inconsistencies in the media reports on Wasa overtime bills.

It said pump operators at different Wasa zones have to work extra hours due to a shortage of manpower. Since they work extra hours, they submit overtime bills.

Three surface water treatment plants are being constructed, and once complete, the demand for workers at Wasa pumps will decrease, which will help reduce overtime bills, it added.

Apart from the three plants, the Wasa has five plants -- two in Narayanganj and three in the capital -- that treat surface water, mainly from the Shitalakkhya.

After getting the reply, the LGD formed a three-member committee led by its Additional Secretary Surendranath Chakrabarty to investigate the matter and the committee was asked to submit its report within 10 working days.

The committee is likely to start its work this week, said an LGD official.

There was an agreement signed between Wasa and its Collective Bargaining Agent (CBA) in 1970 on overtime billing provisions, which allowed the Wasa employees to enjoy double the pay for overtime, said an official.

Though the Local Government and Rural Development (LGRD) ministry forwarded the agreement to the finance ministry for acceptance, the ministry had rejected the provision for double salary for the overtime hours.

The Wasa was duly informed of the finance ministry's decision by the LGRD ministry, but the Wasa Board moved ahead with it anyway.

Sources told The Daily Star that though Wasa issued two office orders in 1988 and 2002 asking employees to submit single rate (equivalent to basic salary) overtime bills, it was never followed, due to pressure from the CBA.

Wasa MD Taqsem said they had already issued letters to the employees. “We will take action if we find them guilty after receiving the replies.”

Among the employees getting overtime, drivers, filter operators and pump operators drew the excess overtime showing long working hours, Wasa sources said.

In many cases, pump operators demanded double or triple their basic salaries as overtime bills though they do not work such long hours, they said.

Wasa sources said many drivers and pump operators are CBA members and they exert undue pressures to draw excess bills.

Some Wasa officers are also responsible for employing drivers for extra hours, thereby inflating overtime bills, a Wasa official said preferring anonymity.

Wasa car driver, Salahuddin Chowdhury, draws a monthly basic salary of Tk 21,450, but submitted a bill of Tk 54,734.48 in July, showing that he served 222 hours of overtime, which is almost over seven hours of overtime every day of the month.

Nazrul Islam, another Wasa driver, who gets Tk 20,420 as basic salary a month, submitted overtime bill of Tk 53,983 for 230 hours of overtime.

Having a basic salary of Tk 14,390, filter operator Abdul Hye asked for Tk 50,282 as bills for 304 hours of overtime.

A Wasa official said there was a shortage of manpower at Wasa pumps. Though the number of pumps increases every month, manpower does not increase likewise.

There are around 750 pumps in the city where 1,500 employees, mainly pump operators, work against a minimum requirement of 2,000 employees, he said.

Former Wasa Board chairman Prof Nazrul Islam said every organisation has rules on salary and overtime and the employees would have to follow those.

Terming the Wasa staffs' overtime bills abnormal, he said overtime bills have to be paid transparently in accordance with the rules of Wasa.