Procedure for offering/accepting post retirement contractual employments/assignment or consultancy

Procedure for offering/accepting post retirement contractual employments/ assignment or consultancy – CVC Circular No. 07/05/21 dated 03.06.2021

CENTRAL VIGILANCE COMMISSION

24600200 Satarkta Bhawan, G.P.O. Complex,
Block A, INA, New Delhi 110023

No. 21-VGL-024
Dated. 03-06-2021

Circular No. 07/05/21

Subject:- Procedure for offering/accepting post retirement contractual employments/assignment or consultancy etc.- reg.

It has been observed that sometimes, government organisations, in order to meet their functional requirement, use the expertise of retired government officials by hiring them on contractual basis, in the capacity of advisor/consultant etc. There is no defined procedure for seeking vigilance inputs before engaging retired government officials from the organisations where such retired officials were employed on full time basis, prior to their retirement.

2. Central Vigilance Commission has observed that the absence of a uniform detined procedure for obtaining vigilance clearance, before engaging retired officials by government organisations, sometimes lead to a situation where officials with tainted past or having cases pending against them are engaged by the government organisations. Such a situation not only leads to unnecessary complaints/allegations of favouritism, but is also against the tenets of fairness and probity which is the basic principle governing the functioning of government organisations.

3. The Commission has therefore decided to formulate a defined procedure before engaging a retired government official on contractual/consultancy basis by government organisations. The procedure to be adopted would include the following Steps:-

(i) In respect of retired officers belonging to All India Services, Group ‘A’ officers of Central Govt. or their equivalent in other organizations owned or controlled by Central Govt., before offering employment to them on contractual/consultancy basis, vigilance clearance from the employer organisation, from which the Govt. Officer had retired, should be necessarily obtained.

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

(ii) A communication seeking vigilance clearance may also be sent to Central Vigilance Commission, simultaneously.

(iv) Incase, 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. Later on, if it is found that the ex-employee was involved in any vigilance related matter or was not clear from vigilance point of view, the erstwhile employer organization would be responsible for all consequential actions.

(v) The retired Govt. officer is to be considered for post retirement engagement only on receipt of vigilance clearance/vigilance inputs, subject to the conditions as given in sub para (i) to (iv) above

(vi) All communications regarding vigilance clearance should be sent by Registered Post/Speed Post, followed by emails on official mail ID of the organisation concerned.

(vii) The procedure for engaging retired government officers should be transparent with equal opportunity to all those, who are willing to offer their services. The post to be filled up on contractual/ consultancy basis should at least be advertised on the website of the organisation concerned at appropriate place and should be available in public domain.

4. Further, 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 offer by retired government officials without observing cooling off period, constitutes a serious misconduct on their part.

5. All government organisations may, therefore, formulate appropriate rules/guidelines for its employees to ensure that post retirement, cooling off period is mandatorily observed by them before accepting any offer from private sector entities. The rules/guidelines should incorporate procedure for seeking/obtaining permission before accepting offer from private sector entities during cooling off period if not in existence. 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.

6. The above instructions may be noted for strict compliance.

(Rajiv Verma)
Officer on Special Duty

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