Neeraj Rohmetra
Jammu, May 27: Several Ministers, legislators and even senior bureaucrats have been violating laid down guidelines pertaining to official tours outside the country.
Irked over repeated violations by senior Government functionaries including several Ministers, the General Administration Department has issued fresh circular No. 12-GAD of 2013 dated May 24 reiterating the guidelines for all such visits abroad.
“It has come to the notice that the instructions issued earlier are not being strictly adhered to”, says the circular issued by Secretary GAD, Sheikh Mushtaq Ahmad.
The circulars further says, “it is, therefore enjoined upon all the concerned to follow the instructions, issued vide circular No. 13-GAD of 2005 dated June 21, 2005, in letter and spirit”.
“Attention of all Administrative Secretaries, both the Divisional Commissioners, all Heads of the Departments and all Deputy Commissioners is invited to the circular No. 13 of GAD of 2005, issued by the General Administration Department, where detailed instructions regarding foreign visits of Ministers, legislators and Government officers have been notified”.
Asked for the reason of reiterating the circular, sources said, “it had come to notice of the State Government that several Government officers including some senior bureaucrats had not been seriously following the guidelines for such official tours abroad. Even some Ministers had chosen not to follow the procedure laid down in the circulars issued by GAD earlier in this context”.
“The GAD Department had brought the matter to the notice of top officials of State Government and the problems pertaining to the travel of Ministers was also discussed with Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah who had to be kept in loop as far as all visits of his Cabinet colleagues are concerned”, sources asserted.
Sources further said, “all officials and Ministers intending to travel abroad had to follow the instructions as laid down by the State Government in consultation with Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). Besides the Government functionaries were required to seek No Objection Certificate (NoC) from several Departments”.
“The Government incumbents desirous of travelling to foreign countries also required separate clearances from Vigilance and Crime Investigation Department (CID). Similarly, the Ministers intending to travel were required to complete their formalities and also seek approval of the Chief Minister officially, while elaborating their purpose of the visit”, sources said.
Source emphasized, “for the past some time several senior Government functionaries and Ministers had not been completing the required formalities in time for making arrangements of their travel to other countries. With the result, State Government had to plead their cases time and again with the officials of Ministry of External Affairs”, adding, “even the Union Ministry officials had expressed their resentment over the lackadaisical approach of the State officials dealing with the matter”.
Statistics available revealed that the Government had spent nearly Rs 1.9 crore on the foreign tours of Ministers and bureaucrats over the past three years. “About 90 percent of these had been incurred by the Tourism Ministry in the name of promoting the tourism potential of the State”.
Ministers and bureaucrats had travelled to several international destinations including Berlin, Geneva, Dubai, Brazil, Argentina, USA, Canada, Jeddah, Riyadh, London Paris, Madrid and Brussels over the past three years on Government expenditure.
In the year 2010-11, the bills of officials of the Tourism Department ‘exceeded’ even that of their concerned Minister. While the official incurred Rs 52 lakh on tours to various international destinations, the then Minister for Tourism, Nawang Rigzin Jora spent Rs 22.41 lakh. During the next financial year (2011-12), the Minister and official incurred almost the same expenditure of around Rs 30 lakhs. In the year 2012-13, the Tourism Ministry recorded an expenditure of Rs 21.46 lakh, while official spent Rs 14.28 lakh.
Few other Cabinet colleagues have travelled to various international destinations on Government expenditure. Minister for Rural Development, Ali Mohammad Sagar spent around Rs 3 lakh on his single visit to France in 2011-12, while Finance Minister, Abdul Rahim Rather has incurred an expenditure of around Rs 9 lakh as he visited Paris, Madrid and Brussels in 2011-12 and again to Japan in 2012-13
Most of these Ministers were accompanied by senior bureaucrats in their tours to visit international destinations.
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