As the previous BJD government faced charges of rehabilitating the ‘pliable’ officers in post-retirement engagement, the BJP has framed comprehensive guidelines on engagement of retired state servants in a transparent manner.

The selection of worthy persons will be made through open advertisement or any method as decided by the Government from time to time. There shall be a Selection Committee headed by Chief Secretary to decide the re-engagement of retired employees on the proposal of the concerned Administrative department, a notification issued by the General Administration and Public Grievance Department on Thursday stated.

Officers who have retired from Government service on attaining the age of superannuation and are below the age of sixty-five years having good service records and are physically fit shall be eligible to be considered for reemployment.

Officers against whom departmental proceedings (u/r15 or u/r 16) or criminal cases are pending or who have been penalized for misconduct during the period of preceding five years shall not be considered for post-retirement reengagement.

Officers having “Outstanding” confidential character roll for continuous sixty months before superannuation can only be considered for re engagement, it said.

Often such reengagements are done despite there being no compelling justification for such engagement. In fact, re-engagement of retired employees has become a rule rather than an exception, the notification noted.

During the years 2010 -2014, the Government establishments had been facing acute shortage of manpower on account of delayed recruitment for various unavoidable reasons resulting in inordinate workload on the remaining staff.

To obviate such a situation, the Government had decided to re-engage retired Government employees having professional expertise temporarily on contractual basis for different spells with certain terms and conditions. Such re-engagement had been envisaged based on necessity.

In the meanwhile, it has come to the notice that different Departments and Offices are engaging retired Government employees in a routine manner without proper justification and merely to deal with the day-to-day routine works.

This was not the objective for which the relaxations had been permitted.

Over the years with improved financial situation, relaxation in recruitment by the Finance Department, strengthening and streamlining of recruitment processes along with rationalization of examinations, the situation has improved substantially, an official said.

By imposing restrictions on reappointment of retired officers, the new Government is apparently trying to send the message loud and clear that it’s not bureaucracy-centric governance as it had been the case in the outgoing BJD Government.

Different government departments including the chief minister’s office had turned into rehabilitation centres for the retired bureaucrats owing loyalty and allegiance of outgoing former CM Naveen Patnaik and BJD’s second-in-command V.K. Panduan, confided in analysts.