FinMin working on norms for salaries of retired central govt officials re-appointed on contract

New Delhi, Aug 16: The finance ministry is working on norms to regulate salary paid to retired central government employees re-appointed on contract and has proposed keeping nomination-based appointments at "bare minimum".

In an office memorandum dated August 13, the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, said that ministries/departments appoint retired central government employees on contract basis, including as consultants, but there are no uniform guidelines for regulating the salary payment in such cases.

The expenditure department has framed draft regulations for salary payments in case of appointment of retired central government employees and has invited comments of ministries/departments within 10 days.

"It has been felt that there is a need to have uniformity to regulate salary of such contractual appointment of retired central government employees," the department said.

The draft guidelines state that appointment of retired employees on contract basis, including as consultants, by way of nomination based on the credentials of past service and not through open market advertisement, should not be made as a "matter of practice and must be kept at bare minimum".

"Such appointments may be made only in the justified exigencies of the official work where public interest is served by the appointment of the retired employee," the draft guidelines said. With regard to salary payment, the draft guidelines said a fixed monthly amount shall be admissible, arrived at by deducting the basic pension from the salary drawn at the time of retirement. It shall be termed as "salary".

"The amount of salary so fixed shall remain unchanged for the term of the contract," it added. It said house rent allowance (HRA) shall be paid, except in those cases where special dispensation is allowed by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet.

The term of such appointments shall be for an initial period of up to one year and may be extendable up to an age of two years more than the age of superannuation. "... in no case shall it be extended beyond the age 5 years more than the age of superannuation," the draft guidelines said. It further said that in cases where the appointment of retired central government employee is made from open market, then the remuneration may be regulated as per terms and conditions of the contract.