Officials recycled already-conscripted workers to obscure their true army intake numbers

Evidence

Another way by which the local officials attempted to deceive the authorities was to conscript men who had already been “conscripted,” if not for the army, then for one of the government works. For example, three men from the department of Zifta were sent to the army only to be discovered that they were already registered as workers in the “factory” of Zifta. The same fate awaited the shaykhs who conscripted them: their sons or their relatives were sent instead of the three men. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 480