Several of Bahrain’s government ministries have been accused of blatantly wasting public money.

The Civil Service Bureau (CSB) found "a huge unjustified waste in the use of allowances, incentives and cash awards" during audit field visits, according to its latest annual report.

Several other administrative violations were also reported, including surplus of staff and irregularities in decisions taken by staff working in senior positions.

"The Administrative Audit Directorate requested those ministries to comply with all civil service regulations when disbursing of any cash awards in future," said the 2011 report.

CSB officials also observed what it described as the "inattentiveness" of some ministries and government bodies in establishing an appeals committee to promote workers' rights and deal with their complaints.

The government recruitment agency said those concerned had since been ordered to comply with the rule so they can properly examine the grievances of staff in a bid to reduce complaints.

It also questioned the decisions made by some government bodies that resulted in irregularities in training and scholarships, and the misuse of annual leave.

"The Administrative Audit Directorate has noticed irregularities in some government bodies in delegation decisions of senior positions. Those government bodies have been notified to abide by the existing rules and regulations in this regard," said the report.

Grievances

The CSB employee evaluation and relations directorate reported 16 staff grievances from government organisations last year. Disciplinary councils were formed and the necessary action was taken.

It also recorded 95 administrative complaints via a special hotline and e-mail, including 55 "serious complaints", although these were not specified.

"The visits revealed the existence of 19 administrative offences, as a number of violations have been discovered in terms of surplus employees on the organisational structures of government bodies," said the report.

The report stated that although there were no clear plans to address the issue of overstaffing, the situation had been resolved.

A total of 164 part-time staffers were also found guilty of violating the Civil Service Law and 90 cases had been investigated and the others were being looked into.

Meanwhile, the CSB said more than 7,200 men and 4,600 women working in ministries and government bodies were promoted last year, representing 26 per cent of the total public sector workplace.

Future plans of the body include developing a unified structure and database of professional, legal and technical positions to connect to its human resource system.

The CSB also plans to implement Quality Management System (QMS) in the Labour and Culture Ministries and the Royal Charity Organisation by the end of the year. Several others were also in the final stages of implementation. – TradeArabia News Service