Bhubaneswar: With a view to streamline the administrative system as well as to put a break on multiple official visits by officers to foreign lands, the state government has imposed a number of restrictions on foreign visit of its officers.
As per an office memorandum issued by the General Administration and Public Grievances Department, no officer of the state government will be allowed to undertake official foreign visits more than thrice during a financial year.
“(The) duration of the visit shall be kept to the absolute minimum. Generally, the visit should not exceed five working days excluding journey time,” said the order, a copy of which is available with Orissa POST.
In order to stop repeated foreign visit of secretaries, the government has asked the secretaries to depute officers of appropriate functional level and conversant with the concerned subject for the trip, rather than deputing higher levels babus.
Secretaries of different departments can travel abroad when their presence is required and no one else can be deputed in his/her place, it said.
The government has also made underlined that secretaries cannot undertake any foreign visit during the Assembly sessions. They can go only when it is
unavoidable.
“Invitations received by officers directly on account of their expertise in a particular domain and where no particular government business is to be transacted will be treated as personal visit. The officer would have to take leave for the period of such visits and such visits shall not be undertaken at government cost,” the government said. The officers have also been asked to submit their foreign visit proposals to the Chief Minister with adequate justification and required information at least 15 days prior to the scheduled visit.
According to sources, the government has taken the step because many activities are postponed and important files pile up due to the long absence of senior level officers. In some cases, the foreign visits of babus are not fruitful, as they do not have much expertise on the subject concerned.
PNN