THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : The state government has directed heads of departments to process applications for voluntary retirement from service in a time-bound manner. Financial losses to the government due to procedural delay will be recovered from the higher officer concerned.
An order issued by the finance department said that if the application is not rejected by the department head, the VRS of an employee will come into effect in three months. “Applications are not rejected in a time-bound manner in many cases and the employees continue to remain in service. The government has to pay them salary, allowances and interest on pension benefits. Such financial liabilities should be avoided,” said the order issued last week.
Applications submitted without notice period should be rejected within five working days, the order said. Applications from employees who face disciplinary action or judicial proceedings should be rejected in seven working days. In both cases, the reason for rejection should be stated. If the office concerned does not have details on disciplinary action or judicial proceedings the application should be forwarded to the higher office.
Applications from staffers who face vigilance probes should also be rejected in seven days. In the case of non-gazetted officers who lack 20 years of service, the application will be rejected within fifteen days. Applications from gazetted officers should be submitted to the appointing authority within seven days. Only applications that have merit in preliminary observation need to be forwarded to the appointment authority and the accountant general.
If the government has to pay interest for pension benefits due to delayed processing of applications, the money will be recovered from the officer concerned. If the concerned department does not get a reply from the appointing authority or the accountant general, the employee should not be allowed to attend office after three months. However, VRS should not be sanctioned without obtaining a service verification report from the accountant general, the order said.