thiruvananthapuram with announcement expected any day next week government has asked all finance department employees to report for duty immediately as the department has a crucial role in completing government business read regularizations prior to election declarationthe department issued an internal order asking staff to report for work since a special cabinet meet will be held on monday earlier the department had reduced its staff by 50 in the wake of covid19 spread in the secretariat especially finance wing from february1the office order issued by additional secretary finance on friday said that in the wake of special cabinet meet and no new covid cases being reported in the department all staffers should report for duty from monday as part of restoring functions of the departmentit is learnt that around 40 employees had contracted covid19 but it is unclear how many of them have turned negative sources said that functioning of the department is crucial as this could be the last cabinet meet in which the government can take policy decisionsthe role of finance department is crucial in processing files after cabinet takes a decision in which financial liability of the government is involved since numerous proposals from multiple departments are pending for clearance at mondays cabinet meet finance needs to function in full capacity said a senior officialit is reliably learnt that files from several departments for regularizing contract and dailywages employees will come before the cabinet for ratification on monday successive governments have been resorting to the tactic of regularizing such appointments in the penultimate hour before electiona senior secretary on condition of anonymity said that buying time without issuing government orders till election is the only way to counter such cabinet decisionsas per the rules of business the items that have financial and legal implications will have to get clearance from the law and finance departments even if they are placed before cabinet and are cleared finance department can in turn refer it law department for legal opinion thereby dragging the matter without issuing an order he saidprevious october additional chief secretary finance rk singh had cautioned all department secretaries to ignore political pressure for regularization proposals however over the past few meetings the cabinet has been clearing such proposals by overruling objections of finance and law departmentsmeanwhile on thursday the government issued yet another order regularizing contract employees in industries department that was cleared at the last cabinet meet it regularized 10 employees of national coir research management institute who have completed 10 years in the organization by overruling the objections from both departments those who have been regularized include two technical officers mechanical and civil librarian clerical assistant and six classfour employees