After streamlining the foreign tours of Union Ministers, the NDA Government has now laid down new norms for foreign trips of bureaucrats. Now, all tours by the officers will have to be first cleared by a Screening Committee of Secretaries and then by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
But before that, the officers will have to give financial implications of the tour and outcomes expected. The officers will also indicate clearly whether their previous tours got any results and helped the Indian Government in any way.
The new directions on foreign tours are part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s austere approach towards unnecessary expenses on foreign visits. In fact, the Prime Minister himself takes a very “lean team” with him while travelling abroad. His team comprises only a handful of officers and one or two Ministers.
Noting that norms for foreign visits were not being followed properly, the Government has said that political clearances from the Ministry of External Affairs and Foreign Contribution Regulation Act clearance from the Home Ministry are also mandatory before going abroad and certificates of such clearances have to be attached before sending it to the Screening Committee. The Government has directed all Ministries that the details of all such visits should be uploaded on Ministry websites.
“In the recent past, it has been observed that the instructions/guidelines related to foreign visits are not being followed in right earnest,” an official note from the Cabinet Secretariat and Finance Ministry said.
The note issued last month by the Central Secretariat and Finance Ministry has been circulated to all bureaucrats specifically directing them that their foreign visit proposals must be routed through the Integrated Finance Division of Finance Ministry for prior consultation and before approval from the competent authority in the Ministry concerned.
The officials will also have to answer a 19-point Foreign Travel Proforma (FTP) elaborating on their foreign tour. Earlier, they had to fill a 12-point proforma that broadly touched upon the expenses and relevance of the foreign tour and did not seek much detail. But now, possibly to make foreign tours more result oriented than just a junket, the new format questions in detail the purpose and outcome out the tour besides seeking details of sponsors, expenditure etc.
The officers will also have to give details of the tour report of his/her last foreign visit indicating quantified outcomes, including tangible and non-tangible benefits from the tour. An officer’s case will be forwarded to the screening committee only if he/she has replied to the proforma “satisfactorily”, failing which the proposals will be returned unprocessed by the Department of Expenditure, says a note by Sudha Krishnan, joint secretary in Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure.
The FTP has to be accompanied with enclosures, including invitation letter, agenda, brief/country position duly approved by the competent authority along with clearances from MEA, PMO, MHA, etc. Detail information relating to support, if any, from the sponsoring organisation to cover the cost of visit and certificate that the composite delegation has not been split and the nodal Ministry or its division concerned has been consulted on the matters covered by the visit, they add.
Besides, all proposals for foreign travel seeking approval of the Screening Committee of Secretaries have to be forwarded by the Additional Secretary and Finance Adviser of the Ministry to the appropriate authority and not by any other officer.
“The time-lines for submitting proposals to the PMO and Screening Committee of Secretaries are at least 10 days and 15 days respectively, before the date of departure. In case a proposal is delayed, condonation of delay from PMO/Cabinet Secretary must accompany the proposal,” the note said.
On return from the tour abroad, the leader of the delegation/official concerned, besides submitting the tour report, will also have to submit a separate note summarising the major achievements of the visit, follow-up action needed and the way forward.