Officers may lose job for overstaying on foreign assignments

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 2

Bureaucrats who fail to return to India on completion of their approved tenures while deputed on foreign assignments will now lose their jobs. The Cabinet Secretary issuing directions to initiate proceedings of “deemed resignation” from service against errant officers.

“The state governments shall initiate proceedings for deemed resignation if the member of service does not return from foreign assignment within one month after completion of the approved tenure and forward a proposal to the cadre controlling authority for taking further action on the issue,” Cabinet Secretary Pradeep K Singh said in a communiqué issued on April 27.

“A number of such instances have come to notice. This trend needs to be discouraged by ensuring strict action against errant officers as per extant policy,” the communiqué addressed to all secretaries to the Centre and Chief Secretaries of states added.

The Department of Personnel and Training had recently issued new rules on deputation for Group-A officers, which stated that an officer overstaying for any reason whatsoever was liable for disciplinary action and other adverse consequences, including the period of overstay not being counted for service for the purpose of pension and that any increment due during the period of overstay being deferred with cumulative effect, till the date on which the officer rejoins his parent cadre. Proceedings for deemed resignation from service may also be initiated.

There have been a number of cases where senior officers who had gone abroad for training or on deputation to another international agency did not return after their tenures ended, and instead chose to seek lucrative employment overseas.

There has been a case of an IAS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre who reportedly remained abroad for nine years after his deputation ended, before he was finally deemed to have resigned. Another IAS officer from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas lost his job five years after he failed to return from a year-long course in Washington. The case of a Maharashtra cadre IAS officer who was supposed to return from Washington in 2006 is still pending. The return of another IAS officer of the Karnataka cadre deputed to the UN mission in Kosovo is reportedly three years overdue.

The cadre controlling authorities have been asked to ensure that officers are made aware of the implications of overstay.