Biometric Attendance System goes offline in KPK due to nonpayment of dues

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Biometric Attendance System (BAS) has become dysfunctional because of non-payment of dues to the cellular company, Ufone.

The services have been blocked in educational institutions, Civil Secretariat, hospitals and other places by Ufone because the government was unable to pay dues.

BAS is a multi-million project by KPK Government which was initiated to reduce absenteeism in major departments of the province. A source told Dawn that government has allocated Rs. 81 million for installing BAS in major hospitals and institutes.

An official said that Directorate has advised the relevant departments to clear their dues before their Subscriber Identity Modules (SIMs) expire. The Directorate developed the software, installed hardware and provided biometric devices to the relevant departments.

Under the agreement, the departments must pay Rs. 270 per 1 Gigabyte (1 GB). The Directorate official also said,

“Our job was to install the system and pay charges in advance to the company for a specific time. After one year, the department concerned is responsible for the regular payment of dues for the service,”

BAS is a fingerprint scanning attendance system and its objective is to ensure attendance of employees via the online dashboard and to identify ghost employees. Absenteeism is a critical issue in public sector organizations. The BAS project was opposed by many employees of KPK, Pakistan.