Karnataka has made attendance through the Kartavya app mandatory for contract and outsourced workers serving in state government departments, offices, boards, corporations, authorities and government-aided institutions. The new system will determine whether salaries and outsourcing agency bills are released from January 1, 2027.
The proposal to extend the Kartavya app beyond permanent government employees received approval from Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, according to a report by Prajavani. Department heads and offices have been directed to register all contract and outsourced workers under their control on the app by November 25, 2026.
From January 1, payments to contract employees and bills submitted by outsourcing agencies will be released only on the basis of attendance reports generated through Kartavya, the report said. Officials have also been instructed not to process payments where attendance has not been recorded on the app.
The order changes the way attendance is documented for a large workforce operating across the state’s public administration. The report said attendance for these workers is currently maintained through handwritten registers or other separate systems. The government has cited the need for reliability and uniformity because the salaries are paid from public funds.
The measure applies to workers engaged through contracts and outsourcing arrangements, rather than only to employees appointed directly as permanent government staff. This brings their attendance records into the same digital system that had so far been restricted to permanent government employees, according to the report.
The implementation places responsibilities on department heads and individual offices, which must complete worker registration before the November 25 deadline. The attendance information will then become the basis for payment processing from the start of 2027. The order does not indicate any separate payment mechanism for workers whose attendance is missing from the app.
The directive also links administrative compliance with the financial processing of outsourcing agencies. Their bills will be assessed against the attendance data produced by Kartavya, making the app’s records an operational requirement for payments across the departments and institutions covered by the order.
Principal Secretary Harsha Gupta warned in the circular that action would be taken against those responsible if the order is not implemented. The next immediate milestones are the November 25 registration deadline and the January 1 start date for app-based attendance-linked payments.
