Ministerial staff urge Chief Secretary to ensure compliance with transfer policy norms

Puducherry Unified Ministerial Staff Association appeals to Chief Secretary to address transfer policy violations within administration.

The Puducherry Unified Ministerial Staff Association has appealed to the Chief Secretary, who is also the Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO), to address the various violations of transfer policy norms by the implementing department within the administration.

In a memorandum, A. Rajendran, Association general secretary, pointed out that while the earlier transfer policy (2018) of Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (DPAR) stipulated that an official may be considered for transfer when he completes three years in a non-sensitive department and two years, in a sensitive department, the present transfer policy notified in 2019 states that “an official who has served for three years will ordinarily be liable for transfer from one office to another in order to provide wide exposure and career growth to him/her”.

The Association accused the DPAR, which issued the relevant G.O. (Government Order), of ironically failing to follow the norms for its own department, and of violating transfer policy norms prevailing in the government for more than 15 years in the matters of transfer, promotion, recruitment rules, regularisation of services, of an estimated 3,000 employees in the grade of LDC, UDC, Assistant and Superintendent.

It contended that while the DPAR issues orders transferring/posting more than 500 employees every year in the ministerial cadre (LDC, UDC, Assistant and Superintendent) of various departments, it has not shifted some officials from its own department in the last 15/25 years. In one case, two senior officials in the rank of under secretary were holding their hyper sensitive portfolio for long periods in violation of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) instructions, it alleged.

According to the Association, beyond violating the policy norms in place, the DPAR also contravened instructions of the CVC to contain malpractice, misconduct and ensuring probity in the administration by stipulating adherence to guidelines and getting employees to recommit to best practices.

The CVC, which mandates CVOs to identify the sensitive posts and staff working in these posts and also ensure that they are strictly rotated after every two/three years to avoid developing vested interests, has made past observations that such rotational transfers are not effected in many organisations.

The CVC has also noted that such overstay and continuous postings afford scope for indulging in corrupt activities, developing vested interests, etc. which may not be in the interest of the organisation. It emphasised that periodical rotation of officials holding sensitive posts/jobs needs to be ensured to prevent prolonged tenure in the same place/position. Further, the CVOs should specifically report the action taken indicating the number of officials rotated/transferred in the respective organisations in the Monthly Report of CVOs submitted to the Commission.