HYDERABAD: The central security agencies were in for a shock on Wednesday when they discovered that sanitation workers at Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) were recording proxy attendance on biometric devices . This swindling of money by Sanitary Field Assistants (SFAs) came to light weeks after GHMC won award for best innovation practices and progress in civic body’s IT wing.These SFAs created synthetic fingerprints of sweepers, who were only named on papers, to record proxy attendance on biometric machines. The synthetic fingerprints costed less than Rs 10 and were made by using adhesive resin. Sources said that the civic body officials were informed about the same by central security agencies.The SFAs who are responsible for ensuring that all the sweepers attend the job had kept seven to eight synthetic fingerprints with them. They were recording proxy attendance of sweepers with these synthetic fingerprints and were drawing money from the civic body in the name these sweepers.The GHMC’s Enforcement, Vigilance and Disaster Management (EV&DM) wing officials caught these SFAs red-handed and seized synthetic fingerprints. The synthetic fingerprints also had alphabets written behind it, hinting at names of the sweepers. Sources said when the accused SFAs were questioned, they named some officials from the civic body, including assistant medical health officers, who were also ‘involved’ in this scam.“We pressed into service six teams who procured 84 synthetic fingerprints from nine SFAs. Apart from departmental inquiry, criminal cases will also be booked against the accused,” said Viswajit Kampati, EV&DM director, who was keeping a watch on sanitation department after a tip off.On Wednesday, inspections were carried out by EV&DM officials in Charminar, Kukatpally, Moosapat, Malakpet and LB Nagar area. During the inspections, 17 SFAs were found guilty of recording proxy attendance, out of which 9 SFAs were using synthetic fingerprints. There are 18,000 sweepers in GHMC, monitored by 948 SFAs. Each sweeper is paid Rs 14,500 per month and each sanitary field assistant is paid Rs 16,000 per month.The biometric attendance was introduced to curb irregularities, but offenders even found a way out to cheat that method. However, GHMC saved Rs 4 crore in a year after biometric attendance was introduced. “We had raised objections when biometric attendance machines were installed at mee seva centres and ration shops for recording attendance. The offenders can use these synthetic fingerprints at all those places where fingerprints are attached with important data,” said Sundeep Kumar Makthala, global president, Telangana Information Technology Association.