Govt asks officials attending seminars for utility reports

In a bid to streamline the keenness among many state government officers to attend national and international meetings, conferences, workshops etc in the country and abroad, state secretariat Nabanna has given a directive to its officials.

The government wants to keep a tab on the activities of these touring officials.

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The state government has directed its officials to submit detailed reports after attending these programmes to their concerned departments.

Chief secretary Manoj Pant has issued an order on 24 June to additional chief secretaries, principal secretaries and secretaries of respective departments to sensitise the issue among the officers, who are authorised to attend national and international programmes.

A section of errant officers regularly attend these official events but do not submit any post-event report to the state secretariat or to their departments with which they are associated.

“It has come to notice that, in several cases, officers who attend national or international conferences, workshops, and meetings –whether within the country or abroad – do not submit reports of these meetings after their return,” Mr Pant’s order states.

“To ensure proper documentation and facilitate sharing of relevant insights or follow-up actions, it is decided that officers authorized to participate in such official engagements shall submit reports of the meetings and relevant proceedings at the earliest after their return,” it also states.

According to sources in the state labour department at the New Secretariat Building: “We have got the chief secretary’s order recently and circulated it among officials in respective wings in our labour department so that officers, who attend the official programmes in different parts of the country or abroad, can be aware of the matter.”

A senior official at Swasthya Bhaban, state health department headquarters at Salt Lake, felt that their department would be brought under scanner of the state secretariat following the chief secretary’s order.

Large number of senior officers in the health department and senior medical teachers associated with government medical colleges across the state frequently attend official seminars, conferences and workshops on medical science in metro cities in the country and mostly in foreign countries.

This move would also streamline the government doctors who are keen to attend national and international seminars. Their foreign trips are allegedly sponsored by international giants in drug and medical device manufacturing industries, a retired top official in the health department said, requesting anonymity.