PANAJI
Goa Police might be hesitant to initiate disciplinary action against its personnel who enjoyed leave by allegedly faking their medical certificates, but, the department has at least decided to crack a whip.
Senior officers are verifying all the medical certificates submitted by the personnel, to ascertain if these are real or fake. Those frequently taking leaves claiming to be sick have come under direct scrutiny.
“Some are habitual absentees, and they submit medical certificates to claim they were not keeping well. A preliminary inquiry confirmed that these are forged certificates and it required an investigation. Submitting fake sick leave certificates is becoming a common phenomenon in the department,” a senior officer told The Goan.
Misuse of sick leaves, sources said, is prevalent for several months though the department preferred to sideline the issue until The Goan reported the news on February 3.
Sources said that all the sick leave applications and medical certificates are being scrutinized.
“Personnel/officials who are repeatedly taking leave pretending to be sick will be investigated first. Their medical certificates will be cross verified by the medical practitioners of the respective government hospitals,” the officer added.
The department is also in receipt of applications from personnel, who hail from North Goa while medical certificates are issued by health centres in South Goa and vice-versa.
"It's a major scam. The genuine cases might face inconvenience because of the ill-doings by a small chunk of men-in-uniform. Nevertheless, our inquiry officers will handle the situation professionally," another senior officer justified.
The Goan, on February 3 reported about the matter that involved several policemen. A notorious head constable is among few others being probed for submitting around seven suspected fake medical certificates, to skip work for personal reasons.
Conflicting outward numbers, diagnosis description of the patient policemen not in medical terminology, most leaves surfacing during the hectic work schedule, etc have questioned the conduct of some habitual leave takers.
The ongoing preliminary inquiry also revealed that the names of surgeons along with his/her signatures and the hospital’s rubber stamp on the medical certificates are not issued by them, raising apprehensions if the hospital authorities are hand-in-gloves.
