Govt tells all depts to check officers' overstay on deputation

Taking a stern view of officers' overstay on deputation, the government has asked all lending departments to strictly monitor these postings.
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has also asked all central government ministries to closely scrutinise requests from borrowing departments seeking extension of an officer on deputation to curb such kind of tendency.
The move came following a report by a Parliamentary Committee which has recommended the government to deal with a "strong hand" cases of officers overstaying the deputation period.
"All the ministries or departments are therefore advised to ensure that deputations are strictly monitored by lending government departments. Requests of the borrowing authorities for no objection to extension of deputations should be closely scrutinised to curb tendency to allow extensions on extraneous grounds, and overstay," the DoPT said in a directive.

The instructions, it said, in no way dilute the responsibility of the deputationist and borrowing departments to ensure that the such officers are relieved in time on completion of their approved tenures.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances and Law and Justice had in its report come down heavily on such officials for misusing the provision of deputation to avoid certain "uncomfortable" positions and suggested steps for discouraging it.

The Committee had said that deputation, as a policy, had been envisaged to facilitate mobility of personnel between departments so that the person concerned as well as the department benefit from the process.

"The tendency of treating deputation as a tool to ensure more comfortable, or even hometown postings is required to be discouraged. The instrument of deputation serves public interest only when there is a rational connection with the qualifications and work experience of the deputationist, and the deputation continues for a reasonable period," it said in the report.
The Committee in this context had further observed that there were umpteen instances of government officials remaining on deputation for years together, moving from one department to another and even to other statutory or autonomous organisations and their stay in their parent department remained very limited.

"Such tendencies need to be curbed with a strong hand," it had said.