THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government has extended the expenditure control measures by another year, said an order issued by Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) Bishwanath Sinha. These measures were launched in November 2020 in the wake of the Covid pandemic and are now being extended, considering the financial position of the government.
The order, in effect, bans modification of government offices, furniture and vehicle purchases. A week ago, Chief Secretary V P Joy had warned officers against weakening the austerity measures. “Certain government departments and organisations are defying the restrictions on foreign travel, vehicle purchase, air travel, telephone use, redeployment of officers and work arrangements. Such activities are weakening the government’s fiscal control efforts,” he said.
The chief secretary’s order also laid out certain directions. The expenditure control measures should be strictly followed by the government departments, autonomous institutions, grant-in-aid institutions, universities, welfare fund boards, commissions, cooperatives, public sector units, aided educational institutions and Constitutional bodies utilising the consolidated fund of the government. Strict action will be taken against those violating the directions.
Financial loss to the government, including interest for the money, due to the non-adherence to these directions will be recovered from the officers concerned. Relaxations in these directions require sanction by the finance department and Cabinet approval.
2020 order
The 2020 order had wide-ranging instructions for a cost cut. The upper ceiling of unpaid leave for government employees was reduced from 20 years to five years. Those who do not return after five years would be deemed to have resigned from service.
It banned the practice of granting promotions to junior officers when their senior takes a leave for three months. Weekly teaching hours of at least 16 hours were made mandatory for sanctioning new college teacher posts. New teacher posts cannot be created in aided schools in case of a nominal increase in the number of students. It also stated that new post creation was the sole discretion of the government.