New Delhi: An assistant executive engineer has been sacked for taking leave 24 years ago and never returning to his desk the urban development ministry said on Thursday.

A.K Verma went on leave in 1990 after joining Central Public Works Department (CPWD) a decade earlier. He defied bosses’ orders to return to work after his requests for additional leave were denied, but it took until 2007 for formal dismissal charges to be brought against him, the ministry said in a statement.

Union urban development minister M. Venkaiah Naidu ordered his dismissal in order to “streamline the functioning of CPWD and to ensure accountability,” it said. A 2012 survey by the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk consultancy rated India’s bureaucracy as the worst among major Asian countries.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said he was shocked by what he saw in the corridors of power after moving to New Delhi following his landslide Lok Sabha election victory in May last year.