Dean denies falsification of attendance records at Stanley Medical College

The controversy was set off after a video showing two employees leaving the college after signing the attendance registers as proxy was circulated. The allegations suggested that the employees fudged the attendance registers and drew pay without serving the duty as per their shifts.

“All the employees are made to sign the registers daily and their bio-metrics attendance is also recorded. No disparity has been found after cross-checking both the formats. Moreover, the video shows green colour registers, which have been replaced with red colour registers since January 2019. There is no proof of proxy records in the video. Therefore, the video seems to be tampered and not the attendance registers,” said Dr Ponnambala.

Vice principal Dr R Selvi, who supervises the attendance, said that the staff have been questioned and their attendances have matched. Though the video shows her giving an interview on the issue, she denied being part of the video or issuing any statement in this regard.

The dean maintained that it was an old video that has been circulated without any proof. Nothing wrong has been found even after questioning the college authorities, he added. “However, if such complaints surface, we are ready to take strong action against the wrongdoers. Therefore, this issue would be a warning to those who try to interfere with the attendance records,” added Dr Ponnambala.

It is to be noted that Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) raided around 10 major government hospitals in the State in December on complaints of malpractices by college staff and non-implementation of the biometric attendance system. DVAC also checked the attendance registers of college staff and verified if they were physically present.