Disciplinary action has been taken against around 400 government employees in Bahrain, including top officials, for violating administrative regulations.

Thirty-eight civil servants were sacked between January and December last year pending criminal proceedings, while 153 workers were suspended, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

Forty others received verbal warnings and 152 were issued written warnings.

The figures were released in the Civil Service Bureau (CSB) annual report for 2014, which revealed the maximum punishments were taken against the Education Ministry with 125 suspensions and 29 dismissals.

The Health Ministry registered 11 suspensions, followed by five suspensions and five dismissals in the Electricity and Water Authority, and seven suspensions in the Central Informatics Organisation.

The Works, Municipalities and Urban Planning Affairs Ministry suspended five of its employees and dismissed three, while the Labour Market Regulatory Authority recorded one dismissal.

“Around 14 discipline committees were formed in 2014 for cases in which recommendations were taken to dismiss the employee from the services,” read the report.

The CSB registered a total of 41 administrative offences related to training programmes, incentives, leaves and other issues in the public sector last year.

It also received 97 administrative complaints, of which 34 were investigated.

Its administrative audit directorate conducted surprise visits to different government bodies to evaluate delegation of authority, recruitment procedures for social centres, application of disciplinary action, part-time employment, follow-up of administrative audit complaints, allowances, employment status for full-time or temporary employees and other issues.

The CSB in its report pledged to come up with “radical solutions” to address shortcomings facing government ministries and bodies, including lack of training programmes for public sector workers.

It said it would follow up on the violations to ensure corrective measures were taken, and also urged the public to report administrative complaints through its hotline 17364815.

The report also revealed that 2,460 new government employees registered with the CSB last year, of which 1,109 were male and 1,351 female.

This was a drop from 2013 when 1,154 males and 1,470 females were hired.

The report also mentioned a study conducted by the CSB, which revealed the average age of government staff in the country was 41, and 65 per cent of employees were between the ages of 30 and 49.

“Moreover, the bureau has issued a circular on development standards of senior positions and directorates in the civil service, which aims to reduce the administrative expansion and inflation in government facilities,” said CSB president Ahmed Al Zayed.

“During the past year the bureau has made many achievements, the recruitment action is turned to be through Work Flow system. This will serve all government entities and speed up the process to complete the recruitment action.”

According to the report, the CSB reviewed and evaluated manpower contracts and services which resulted in BD11.8 million ($31 million) being saved last year.

In addition, several incentives, awards and benefit programmes were introduced for public sector staff at an annual cost of about BD6 million. - TradeArabia News Service