Govt officials taking up jobs just after retirement is a serious misconduct: CVC

June 4: The Central Vigilance Commission on Thursday said retired officials accepting jobs in private sector organisations without the mandatory cooling off period constitutes “serious misconduct”. In an order, it also said that all government organisations should mandatorily take vigilance clearance before offering post-retirement jobs to babus. Interestingly enough, the letter came only a few days after the West Bengal government engaged former Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay as the chief advisor to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has directed the secretaries of all the Central government ministries and departments, chief executives and chief vigilance officers of all public sector undertakings to get vigilance clearance before employing a retired official on contractual or consultancy basis. “Post retirement acceptance of offer by retired government officials without observing cooling off period, constitutes a serious misconduct on their part,” said the CVC.

“In respect of retired officers belonging to All India Services, Group A officers of Central government or their equivalent in other organisations owned or controlled by the Central government, before offering employment to them on contractual/consultancy basis, vigilance clearance from the employer organisation, from which the government officer had retired, should be necessarily obtained,” it said.

“In case a retired officer had served in more than one organisation, vigilance clearance should be obtained from all the organisations where the retired officer had served during a period of 10 years prior to his retirement,” the letter added. The CVC has also made it clear that the private sector should also follow the procedure before employing retired government officials.

“It has been observed that on some occasions, immediately after their retirement from government organisations, retired officials are taking up full time job/contractual assignments in private sector organisations. Quite often, cooling off period, as prescribed under the rules of organisations concerned, is not observed before taking up such offers. Post-retirement acceptance of offers by retired government officials without observing cooling off period constitutes serious misconduct on their part,” the letter said.

“All government organisations may, therefore, formulate appropriate rules/guidelines for its employees to ensure that post retirement, cooling off period edgily observed by them before accepting any offer from private sector he rules/ guidelines should incorporate procedure for seeking/ obtaining before accepting offer from private sector entities during cooling off period. The applicable service/ conduct rules should also be revised/modified to ensure that, if required, appropriate action can also be initiated in case of violation of such rules by retired employees,” it added.

“In respect of retired officers belonging to all India services, Group A officers of central government or their equivalent in other organisations owned or controlled by central government, before offering employment to them on contractual/consultancy basis, vigilance clearance from the employer organisation, from which the government officer had retired, should be necessarily obtained,” the CVC said.

In case a retired officer served in more than one organisation, the vigilance clearance should be obtained from all organisations where the retired officer had served during a period of 10 years prior to his retirement, it said mentioning the procedure.

The CVC said in case, no reply is received from the erstwhile employer(s) within 15 days of sending communication by speed post to them, a reminder may be sent to them for expediting vigilance clearance.  However, in case no reply is received from the erstwhile employer within 21 days of sending initial communication to them, it may be considered as ‘deemed vigilance clearance for the person concerned’, the commission said.