Government modifies rules on taking up of foreign assignments by senior officers

IF A government officer below the rank of a joint secretary wants to take up a short-term or consultancy assignment with a foreign organization with which he has currently be dealing with, there is no ban, clarifies DoPT. However, for an officer at the rank of a joint secretary and above, requisite permission is mandatory, it further said.
Earlier, according to a letter (No. 111012001-FA(UN) dated October 13, 2004, “if an officer has been dealing with an international organization in his official capacity at any time during the previous five years, he may not accept a short-term or long term consultancy assignment from such an agency”.
After the modification of the earlier rule, the bar on accepting appointments with foreign organizations if the officer had dealings with the organizations in the last five years is completely removed in case of Directors and below. For officers of the rank of joint secretary and above, the secretary of the concerned ministry needs to certify that the officer did not use his official position to get the foreign assignment. Even then, the case would be ultimately be considered by a Committee of Secretaries.

Babus in Demand

New Delhi-based Institute of Secretariat Training and Management (ISTM) urgently requires an officer for the post of Deputy Director (Behavioural Training) on a deputation basis. The advertisement has, however, clarified that it’s a faculty post in a training institute, engaged in imparting training to Central government employees, the candidate should have the right aptitude or flair for teaching. For details, follow this CIRCULAR

Secretaries in Action

R Bandyopadhyay, secretary, ministry of corporate affairs has reviewed the ministry’s investor education initiatives for the current year after it had increased the number of investor awareness programmes by 10 times from the 300 programmes organized last year. The ministry has taken 18 organizations including BSE, ICAI, CII, FICCI etc. on board for the initiative.