Developmental deptts may borrow skilled employees through ‘inter-departmental deputation’

Jammu: Facing the dearth of skilled and qualified manpower, the developmental departments in J&K may now borrow such employees with specific skill-sets and technical prowess consistent with their (departments’) requirements “through inter-departmental deputation.”

In agreement with the fundamental tools for good governance viz., skill mapping and optimum utilization of mapped skills, this technical or professional manpower will be drawn out of the large pool of skilled employees in the government, whose services are currently being under-utilized.

In this connection, the government Monday notified a policy for effective utilization of manpower in the Union Territory (UT) of J&K through inter-departmental deputation of employees based on their technical or professional qualifications.

However, five major services viz., All India Services; Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service; Jammu and Kashmir Police Service; Jammu and Kashmir Accounts Gazetted Service and Jammu and Kashmir Forest Gazetted Service will be exceptions and will not be covered under this policy. The policy was approved by the Administrative Council in its meeting chaired by the Lieutenant Governor on January 22, 2023.

It will govern the deputation of employees possessing higher educational, technical qualifications outside their parent departments where their specific skill-sets, qualifications can be put to better use, consistent with the requirements of the borrowing departments.

“Developmental departments like the Public Works (R&B) Department, Agriculture Production Department, Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Housing and Urban Development Department, Information Technology Department etc., are facing dearth of technically and professionally qualified employees. There is a large pool of skilled employees in the government, whose services are currently being under-utilized. Skill mapping and optimum utilization of the mapped skills are among the fundamental tools for good governance. In order to ensure efficient utilization of human resource, and with a view to match demand and supply for improving efficiency in governance, a need has been felt to utilize the services of these qualified (technical or professional) employees effectively,” GAD Secretary Dr Piyush Singla spells out objectives of the policy.

According to him, this policy will address the skill-gaps in various technical or developmental departments and provide employees an opportunity to put their specific skill-sets to the best possible use.

Policy specifies that the initiation for process of utilization of services of qualified (technical or professional) employees will be at the level of the department that intends to utilize the services of an employee with such qualifications as may be suitable for the better functioning of the department, or at the level of the employee (technically or professionally qualified) who is desirous of providing his or her services in such a department where his or her higher qualification or skill-sets may be better utilized.

“An employee desirous of offering his or her technical or professional services to another department may visit a designated window, which shall be made available on the e-HRMS portal, through his/her CPIS ID and submit a form prescribed for the purpose, along with copies of the relevant certificates or degrees or diplomas. The employee shall also provide reasonable justification as to how his or her services shall be better utilized in the department where he or she intends to provide his or her services,” it mentions.

As per the procedural rules, alternately, the department that intends to utilize the services of an (technically or professionally qualified) employee may submit an application in format prescribed for the purpose, along with the details of such employee(s) whose services they intend to utilize, to the Screening Committee headed by the Administrative Secretary, General Administration Department.

The General Administration Department will seek the comments of the parent department of the employee in all cases. However, the applicants, besides other documents, will have to submit an affidavit to the effect that they will not claim extension in the tenure of deputation beyond the sanctioned term, and they will not claim any preferential right in matters of promotion, perks, salary or emoluments etc. in the borrowing department.

For the purpose of this policy, a Screening Committee will scrutinize all the applications for utilization of services of qualified (technical or professional) employees received from the different departments. The panel will have an Administrative Secretary, General Administration Department as chairman while a representative each of the Planning, Development and Monitoring Department; Finance Department; parent or lending Department and the department where the services of the employee is to be utilized will be its members. The members should not be below the rank of Additional Secretary.

The Screening Committee will examine each case and submit its recommendations to the General Administration Department, which will place the same before the competent authority for consideration or approval.

The policy mentions that the services of an employee will be initially utilized on deputation for a period of one year from the date the incumbent employee is relieved from the parent department. The period of utilization of services may be extended, provided both the parent department and the borrowing department mutually agree upon the extension.

“Such extension shall be for a maximum period of one year at a time, but the maximum term of deputation shall not, under any circumstances, exceed four years. If the department expresses intent to retain an official beyond the prescribed tenure, it shall initiate a proposal for seeking concurrence of the parent department three months before the date of expiry of the tenure. In no case shall the borrowing department retain an official beyond the sanctioned term, unless prior approval of the competent authority to grant further extension has been obtained on the recommendation of Screening Committee after concurrence of the Finance department,” it warns.

Employees who qualify for and provide their services on deputation will be granted incentives in the form of age-relaxation and additional weightage in recruitment against higher posts by the government recruiting agencies. Proposals for consequential changes in the recruitment rules will be forwarded by all Administrative Departments to the Standing Committee constituted vide Government Order No 1223-JK(GAD) of 2021 dated November 17, 2021, the policy mentions.

Rules have specified that during the period of utilization of services, the employee will continue to be governed by the same pay scale which would have been applicable to him or her had he or she continued to work in the parent department.

“The employees who qualify for and are deputed under this policy shall not claim for any preferential treatment in the borrowing department in matters of salary, allowances, perks etc or for absorption in the borrowing department. A person in a higher scale of pay or level in pay matrix shall not be appointed on deputation to a post in lower scale of pay or level in the pay matrix. The designation and post of the employee shall remain unchanged in the new department,” it has been clarified.

All conditions of service, as provided in the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Service Regulations, 1956, Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1956 with such adaptations, modifications and additions as have been rendered necessary by amendments issued from time to time, and other rules as exist or will come into existence in the future will apply mutatis mutandis to the employees deputed under this policy.