BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha Government has directed that its administrative departments or undertakings can not engage retired public servants beyond 65 years.
With the departments adopting various policies to engage retired Government employees, the State Government has come out with a set of fresh guidelines that seeks to bring about uniformity in the process. The guidelines say that a retired Government servant can be re-employed initially for two years which can be extended by another two years with an annual appraisal of performance. At no point can the officer be employed beyond four years or 65 years of age. The present retirement age for Government employees is 60.
Officers against whom departmental proceedings or criminal cases are pending or being contemplated, those penalised for misconduct during the last five years of their service will not be considered for re-employment.
The re-employment, as per the new norms formulated by the General Administration Department, will be made through an open advertisement followed by selection by a committee. The pay of the re-engaged officials will be determined by the appointing authority with approval of Finance Department.
During the period of re-employment, the officers will be governed by the provisions of the Odisha Government Servants’ Conduct Rules, 1957 and liable to be proceeded against misconduct, omission and commissions as per the Odisha Pension Rules, 1992. With the State Government sticking to its cost-cutting measures by resorting to minimum fresh recruitment, the Government establishments have been feeling the pressure of workload and taking to hiring retired officers in last few years.
In most cases, the officers are hired back as officers-on-special duty with different pay packages. Information sought through RTI Act reveals that the Finance Department has re-employed 44 retired officers between 2009 and 2014 with salary ranging from Rs 9,300 to Rs 10,000.
The last set of guidelines to govern engagement of retired government servants was chalked out in 1999.