LETTER TO CPMG JHARKHAND CIRCLE TO STOP IRREGULAR RECOVERY IMPOSED ON SBCO OFFICIALS UNDER CONTRIBUTORY NEGLIGENCE:-
Ref.AIPSBCOEA/CHQ/To Stop irregular recovery on SBCO staff/2022 Dt: 10.03.2022
To
The Chief Postmaster General,
Jharkhand Circle,
Ranchi – 834002.
Subject:- Request to stop irregular recovery imposed on SBCO staff in the name of
contributory negligence for petty irregularities …
Reference:- 1. Rule 11(iii) of CCS (CCA) Rules, 1965.
2. D.O. Letter No. INV-17/18/2021-INV-DOP dated 29.11.2021 issued from Directorate.
Respected Sir,
On behalf of AIPSBCOEA, it is brought to the kind notice of the Chief Postmaster General, Jharkhand Circle about the irregular recovery of many Lakhs of Rupees imposed on the SBCO staff in the name of Contributory negligence for petty irregularities which is recently becoming a burning issue in SBCO cadre as if it is a punishment for serving in the Department of Post, for the intentional misappropriation of some other delinquent officials who cause the pecuniary loss to the Government.
Contributory Negligence /Irregular recovery imposed on SBCO staff:-
Duties of SBCO staff are well defined in Manual for SB Control, Pairing and ICO Procedures. Accordingly, the SBCO staff are exercising the decentralized Audit and Accounts duties and their work actually start after accounting of the transactions. Therefore, penalizing the SBCO employees by imposing the recovery of loss irrationally for frauds committed in the Saving Schemes in sub-offices and branch offices is contrary to the statutory rules. The SBCO staff are not related to any type of monetary transactions and accordingly they should not be identified as sub-offender/co-offender in misappropriation cases. It is clearly laid down that under Rule 11 (iii) CCS (CCA) Rules 1965, the penalty of recovery can be imposed on a Government servant only when it is established that a Govt. Servant is directly responsible for the act of negligence and breach of orders causing the financial loss and accordingly the SBCO staff should not be held responsible for any type of recovery in misappropriation cases as they did not contribute either directly or indirectly to the fraud and SBCO staff should not be brought under contributory negligence as they are not involved directly in monetary transactions.
Rule 11 of CCS CCA Rules 1965 (D.G.P&T order No.114/176/78-Disc. II dated 13.02.1981)
(23) Imposition of the penalty of recovery: (a):
In the case of proceedings relating to recovery of pecuniary losses caused to the Government by negligence of breach of orders by a Government servant, the penalty of recovery can be imposed only when it is established that the Government servant was responsible for a particular act or acts of negligence or breach of orders or rules and that such negligence or breach caused the loss. In the case of loss caused to the Government, the competent disciplinary authority should correctly asses in a realistic manner the contributory negligence on the part of an office, and while determining any omission or lapses on the part of an officer, the bearing of such lapses on the loss considered and the extenuating circumstances in which the duties were performed by the officer, shall be given due weight.
(b): Manner in which charge-sheet to be framed:-
As is well known the penalty of recovery from pay is a special type of penalty which cannot be awarded in all types of misconduct. Rule 11 (3) of the CCS (CCA) Rules, 1965, clearly prescribes that the penalty of recovery from pay of the whole or part of the loss caused by the Government servant to the Government by negligence or breach of orders on his part can be awarded only in a case where it has been established that the negligence or breach of orders on the part of a Government servant has led to the loss to the department. But it has been observed that the requirement of the rule could not be properly appreciated by most of the disciplinary authorities. It should be clearly understood by all the disciplinary authorities that while an official can be punished for good and sufficient reasons, the penalty of recovery can be awarded only if the lapses on his part have either led to the commission of the fraud or misappropriation or frustrated the enquiries as a result of which it has not been possible to locate the real culprit. It is, therefore, obligatory that the charge-sheet should be quite elaborate and should not only indicate clearly the nature of lapses on the part of the particular official but also indicate the modus operandi of the frauds and their particulars and how it can be alleged that but for the lapses on the part of the official, the fraud or misappropriation could be avoided or that successful enquiries could be made to locate the stage at which the particular fraud had been committed by a particular person. The disciplinary authority is also required to give a clear finding in the punishment order on both these points. If it is not done, the order, awarding the penalty of recovery will be liable to be set aside. The Heads of Circles and Administrative Offices, etc., are requested to bring these instructions to the notice of all concerned so that the disciplinary proceedings for a penalty of recovery may not suffer from a procedural flaw.
The entire loss caused to the Government is to be recovered from the Delinquent official only. The meaning of “Delinquent” is one who is proved to be the “accused” or the “criminal” who has committed the theft himself to cause the misappropriation. So, the recovery of amount should be levied on him, if he doesn’t have liquid cash then his properties can be seized/attached by court to bear the loss. Anyhow, he will be possessing the fraudulent amount in his name/family members/in the form of assets. So, amount should be recovered only from the delinquent official through any one source as mentioned above and very serious cases to be filed against him to put behind the bars.
But usually, the Administration is recovering the amount misappropriated from the other innocent officials who come into the scene only after the delinquent official has defrauded the amount intentionally by himself. The relevant vouchers/consolidations are sent to the Accounting office only on the next day of the transaction where it is handed over to the SBCO branch. The officials of SBCO have not seen the depositor, or collected money from him, or tallied the cash across the counter for the particular day of transaction on which the fraud happened. Only with the available documents received, voucher checking is done for the H.O. and all the S.O.s under it by hardly 2-3 SBCO officials on the next day. Now, each and every transaction has to be checked through the vouchers received at SBCO 100% for all the offices including H.O. and the S.O.s under it for that particular date. Practically speaking, almost all the SBCO units throughout the country are filled up by 1/3rd of the total sanctioned strength only. Also, even if the SBCO officials have checked the relevant vouchers for all the criteria as per the SB orders and procedures, the occurrence of fraud cannot be prevented as already the fraud had taken place on the previous day itself. Moreover, the fraudulent person usually do not commit any omission in the vouchers mishandled by him to do the fraud. In this situation it is very shocking that how the administration wants to put the innocent SBCO officials into trap for recovering the amount which was defrauded by a criminal intentionally, without recovering the amount directly from the accused who has done the misappropriation.
This is nothing but, indirectly supporting the criminal who has misappropriated the amount and caused the pecuniary loss to the Government. This is a way of encouraging frauds and patronizing the criminals who misappropriate amounts in crores in this technical/technological scenario. So, a mentality has developed among such black sheep who have a crooked mind of indulging in frauds that the amount he will swindle will be collected from some other innocent officials and not from him fully. So, the amount he has not repaid to the Department will be a profit for such a person. Automatically, in this business minded world, such criminals will continue to do the frauds unless and until very strict methods are not adopted to collect the full amount from the concerned person who has misappropriated the amount intentionally and very serious cases to be filed against him to put him behind the bars.
As mentioned above the innocent SBCO employees who is in no way connected in the frauds are made scape goats for only working for the Department and Auditing the POSB transactions sincerely amidst the technical issues, staff shortage and all the draw backs of the software which is not in a way that each and every fraud can be detected by them. Every possibility/loop hole is there for a fraudulent person to commit frauds in the CBS/GL integrated scenario whatever it is. It is relevant to mention some observations from the legal forums in connection with imposition of penalty of recovery of loss by way of contributory negligence.
Even after clear instructions vide D.O. Letter No. INV-17/18/2021-INV-DOP dated 29.11.2021 issued from Directorate, still SBCO officials are brought under contributory negligence and huge amounts are being recovered from them. Though the SBCO officials are in no way responsible for the monetary loss caused to the Department due to the fraud that had already occurred before the concerned documents reach SBCO, the innocent officials are brought under recovery.
In the light of the above facts, the respected Chief Postmaster General may kindly interfere and issue clear instructions to all Disciplinary Authorities to adhere to rules strictly and not to impose recovery under contributory negligence on the innocent SBCO officials who are not involved in the monetary transactions directly and to recover the whole amount of misappropriation from the delinquent official (culprit) who committed the fraud by himself and to file case against the culprit for putting him behind the bars. This act will surely decrease the frauds and will act as a deterrent to those delinquent officials (culprits) who intend to do frauds and will constitute a threat/warning to them. It is kindly requested to review all the already ordered recovery cases on SBCO officials during the past vide D.O. Letter No. INV-17/18/2021-INV-DOP dated 29.11.2021 issued from Directorate and issue instructions to the disciplinary authorities for withdrawal of the same immediately.
A line of reply is solicited Please.
With Regards,
Yours Sincerely,
-Sd-
(SHP. JASMINE JALAL BEGAM)
General Secretary AIPSBCOEA.
LETTER TO CPMG HARYANA CIRCLE FOR CONVENING DPC FOR LSG PROMOTIONS TO SBCO OFFICIALS:-
AIPSBCOEA/CHQ/Convening DPC for LSG Promotions to SBCO officials/2022 Dt-09.03.2022
To
The Chief Postmaster General,
Haryana Circle,
Ambala – 133001.
Sub: Regarding implementation of the Transfer Guidelines dated 28.01.2022 & Convening DPC for grant of LSG Promotions to SBCO Officials…
Ref : 1. Rotational transfer Guidelines for the year 2022-2023, Directorate letter No. X-
12/1/2019-SPN-II-Part(1) dated 28.01.2022.
2. Directorate letter No.X-12/1/2019-SPN-II-Part(1) dated 19.5.2021.
1. On behalf of the AIPSBCOEA CHQ, it is brought to the kind notice of the respected Chief Postmaster General, Haryana Circle regarding the Guidelines for rotational transfers of Group-C, Group-B(Gazetted and Non-Gazetted) and Group-A(JTS and STS) officials/officers working in a Circle for the year 2022-23 issued by Directorate due to the spread of Pandemic.
The Post Tenure of SBCO officials may be taken as 4 years as per the Transfer Guidelines dated 28.01.2022 mentioned in reference 1 which is in continuation with the Guidelines dated 19.5.2021. SBCO unit being identified as Non sensitive, notification of RT may be issued accordingly to grant extension of one year to officials completing 4 years post tenure (or) to give 3 options for the place of transfer. The request transfers if any may also be considered sympathetically. This will enable the officials to work effectively with mental peace and to be with their family members to take care of them.
2. According to rule “Departmental Promotion Committee should meet at regular annual intervals to draw panels to be utilized for promotions over a year. Action will be initiated well in advance without waiting till a vacancy arises. The meeting should not be held up for the reason that Recruitment Rules are under revision. Rules in force on the date of DPC meeting will be followed. Convening of DPC meeting can be dispensed with only after a certificate is issued by the Appointing Authority that there are no vacancies to be filled that year”.
In Haryana Circle out of 5 HSG I, 5 HSG II and 9 LSG Sanctioned Posts, none are working in HSG I Posts, 4 are working in HSG II Posts and 5 are working in LSG Posts. The officials who have just entered service and with very few years of service are forced to do the duties of the regular Supervisor (LSG, HSG II & HSG I). These officials do not have experience and proper training for performing the duties of the regular Supervisors which lead to many problems while discharging their duties practically in many units. More over the duties of the PA SBCO and Supervisor SBCO are distinct and have their own responsibility as per all the SB Orders issued from time to time and the Control Procedure laid for SBCO. Hence, it is kindly requested that action may be taken immediately to fill up all the Supervisory Posts (LSG, HSG II & HSG I) lying vacant at SBCO by conducting DPC.
A line of reply is solicited Please.
With Regards,
Yours Sincerely,
-Sd-
(SHP. JASMINE JALAL BEGAM)
General Secretary AIPSBCOEA
LETTER TO CPMG MAHARASTRA CIRCLE FOR RELIEF OF OFFICIALS ORDERED FOR INTER CIRCLE TRANSFER:-
AIPSBCOEA/CHQ/Relief of SBCO officials ordered for inter circle transfers/2022 Dt-01.03.2022
To
The Chief Postmaster General,
Maharastra Circle,
Mumbai GPO Building- 400001.
Sub: Regarding relief of SBCO officials ordered for inter circle transfer…
Ref : 1. Rotational transfer Guidelines for the year 2022-2023, Directorate letter No. X-
12/1/2019-SPN-II-Part(1) dated 28.01.2022.
2. Directorate letter No.X-12/1/2019-SPN-II-Part(1) dated 19.5.2021.
3. Letter from CPMG Maharastra circle Memo No. STA/50-51/IC/PA SBCO/2020 dated
27.01.2021.
4. Letter from CPMG, Bihar circle, Patna-800001, Memo No. Staff-32/R-38/Misc/2020/SBCO
dated 28.05.2021.
5. Letter from PMG, Northern Region, Muzaffarpur-842002, Memo No.
Staff/PN/Trf/Posting/PA(SBCO)/2019 Dated at Muzaffarpur the 16.06.2021.
6. Letter from PMG, Varanasi Region, Varanasi-221002, Memo No. RPV/STA/SBCO/RT/2018
dated at Varanasi the 08.07.2021.
7. Letter from the SSPOs, Jaunpur Division, Jaunpur-222001, Memo No. B-4/8/SBCO/Ch-IV
Dated at Jaunpur the 28.07.2021.
On behalf of the AIPSBCOEA CHQ, it is brought to the kind notice of the respected Chief Postmaster General, Maharastra Circle regarding the Guidelines for rotational transfers of Group-C, Group-B(Gazetted and Non-Gazetted) and Group-A(JTS and STS) officials/officers working in a Circle for the year 2022-23 issued by Directorate vide reference 1 as above due to the spread of Pandemic.
In the Guidelines under Sl no-(viii) : Transfers at own request and cost may be allowed.
1. As per the guidelines, one SBCO official Sri. Rajeev Kumar PA SBCO who was then at Palghar HO and now PA SBCO Kalyan HO working on deputation at Thane HO under Thane division at Maharastra Circle has requested for transfer to SBCO Bihar Circle. The official has received his orders for place of posting to Gopalganj Ho under Northern Region, Muzaffarpur, Bihar Circle vide the references 3,4 and 5, but not yet relieved since more than one year.
2. Another SBCO official Sri. Sachin Kumar Tripathi PA SBCO who was then at Palghar HO and now PA SBCO Kalyan HO under Thane division at Maharastra Circle has requested for transfer to SBCO UP Circle. The official has received his orders for place of posting to Jaunpur HO under Jaunpur division , Varanasi Region, UP Circle vide the references 3,6 and 7, but not yet relieved since one year.
Hence relief of both the SBCO officials ordered for inter circle transfers may kindly be considered sympathetically vide all their individual representations and the Directorate orders dated 28.01.2022 which is in continuation with the instructions issued from Directorate dated 19.5.2021 vide reference 2 as above to cause favorable orders for relief of the officials to join the new place of posting. This will enable the officials to work effectively with mental peace, avoiding double establishment and to be with their family members to give them moral support during the Pandemic spread.
A line of reply is solicited Please.
With Regards,
Yours Sincerely,
-Sd-
(SHP. JASMINE JALAL BEGAM)
General Secretary AIPSBCOEA
LIST OF APPROVED OFFICE BEARERS LIST OF AIPSBCOEA CHQ ELECTED UNANIMOUSLY IN THE 6TH ALL INDIA CONFERENCE:-
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