PROPOSAL FOR THE FUTURE OF SBCO:
AIPSBCOEA/CHQ/Proposal for the future of SBCO/2022 Dated: 06.01.2022
To
The Secretary,Department of Posts,
Dak Bhawan, Sansad Marg,
New Delhi-110 001.
Subject: Regarding Proposal of the future of SCBO Cadre….
Reference: AIPSBCOEA/CHQ/Resolutions of the All India Conference/2022 Dated 06.01.2022.
On behalf of AIPSBCOEA CHQ, the Proposal regarding the future of the SBCO Cadre which was thoroughly discussed and decided in the All India Conference of AIPSBCOEA held at Chennai, Tamil Nadu from 28.12.2021 to 30.12.2021 are submitted herewith for your kind perusal and necessary action Please.
Future of SBCO:-
Suggestion I:
A Committee was constituted for Cadre review/restructuring of Gr ‘C’ /Gr ‘B’(Non- Gaz ) of PAOs vide memo dated 05.03.2020 under the chairmanship of Sr. DDG (PAF). As our Association is already demanding for audit status and bringing the SBCO staff under the control of Director of Postal Accounts (PAO), the Cadre restructuring may be done in SBCO at par with DPA which is under the Control of GM PA & F as both the wings are performing the same kind of work. At the outset, SBCO was bifurcated from the Audit and Accounts with the approval of CAG. Moreover, SBCO is discharging audit duties only even now w.r.t all the SB Categories as per control procedures on behalf of GM PA & Fat H.O level. So, the change of Control of SBCO to GM PA & F is fully justified.
SBCO cadre may be decentralized at divisional levels for effective functioning to avoid the undue hardships faced by the SBCO officials at the end of every tenure and to work with full dedication and mental peace.
It is high time for Department to take a correct decision regarding the future of SBCO cadre and safeguarding the purpose of forming the SBCO cadre from the AG P&T.
Amidst the ongoing process of proposal of decentralization of the Postal accounts and obvious opt out by the officials of Postal Accounts to get decentralized and to work in the Head Post offices, the SBCO officials who are already well established at the Head post offices can carry out the accounts work on behalf of Postal Accounts under the direct control of GM A & F.
The department thinks that changing the recruitment rules and allowing SBCO officials to work as General line PAs in SBCO and vice versa will solve the staff shortage issue. But, this will open floodgates of new problems and the POSB will be totally wither away. The process of exchanging between SBCO PAs and General line PAs will surely dilute the Audit setup and defeat the very purpose of forming the Saving Bank Control Organization. The SBCO officials who opt for General line will face many new unheard problems .Hence it is requested that the Department of Posts should bring the SBCO under the control of GM PA & F and allow the cadre to do the work of Postal accounts after decentralization which is the only solution for all the problems faced by the SBCO cadre.
(OR)
Suggestion II:
The SBCO officials are now to opt for working as General line PAs in compelling situation only due to the following reasons:
(i) Non filling up of vacant posts and excess workload by allotment of works of vacant seats to the remaining skeleton strength of officials or even single SBCO official.
(ii) Due to staff shortage getting transfer to their parent region/division has become remote.
(iii) Imposing irrational and irregular recovery on the innocent SBCO officials under contributory negligence for the frauds intentionally committed by some delinquent officials.
The reasons cited from (i) to (iii) may be settled immediately by giving adequate staff strength to SBCO, restricting the transfer liability to divisional level, to exempt the SBCO staff from imposing recovery in the name of contributory negligence by implementing the contents of the D.O letter from the Director General Postal Services, D.O. No. INV-17/18/2021- INV DOP dated 29.11.2021 at all levels (field level in all the H.Os) to solve all the problems and difficulties faced by the SBCO cadre.
If the Department of Post is not ready to consider neither of the above suggestions submitted on behalf of AIPSBCOEA CHQ nor serious for future of the SBCO cadre to meet the purpose of formation of SBCO from the AG P&T to function as the decentralized auditing and to safe guard the crores and crores of public money invested in the POSB schemes throughout the country for the welfare of the customers, the staff of SBCO may be given the following options.
The Administration has forced the Association major stake holders of the SBCO staff to take the following stand in giving option regarding merger of cadres.
a. Option should be given for merger with Postal Accounts which is our considered demand for several years.
b. Option should be given for merger with PAPO.
(In both cases of a & b , seniority should be maintained at par with the staff of Postal Accounts and PAPO. Choice of place of posting should be given to the SBCO officials in the PAPO cadre.)
c. Option should be given for remaining in SBCO. (For staff opting for this option status quo to be maintained and their transfer liability should be restricted to divisional level).
With very heavy heart , we have taken the above decision, as SBCO officials who are functioning all along as the watch dog of the total POSB and checking whether all orders and rules issued from time to time are followed without violation and raising objections to avoid any loss to the Department of Posts are made refugees in our own home of Department of Posts. Already each and every SBCO official is facing different problems as mentioned above like staff shortage, non transfer to their parent region/division, recovery under contributory negligence, so becoming refugees in our own home of Department of Posts is nothing but add insult to injury. But we are forced to accept the same in the given current situation due to the helpless attitude of the Department towards SBCO.
Hence, on behalf of AIPSBCOEA CHQ, it is requested that the Honorable Secretary Posts being the Head of the family of the Department of Posts kindly issue early orders for cadre restructuring/review and then make a thorough and serious study of the Proposal regarding the cadre of SBCO cited above in the suggestions to decide the future of SBCO.
A line of reply is solicited please.
With Regards,
-Sd-
SHP. JASMINE JALAL BEGAM
General Secretary
AIPSBCOEA.
Copy To:
Director General,
Department of Post,
Dak Bhawan, Sansad Marg, New Delhi-110 001.
Member (p),
Department of Post,
Dak Bhawan, Sansad Marg, New Delhi-110 001.
The Deputy Director General Establishment,
Department of Post,
Dak Bhawan, Sansad Marg, New Delhi-110 001.
The Director SR & Legal,
Department of Post,
Dak Bhawan, Sansad Marg, New Delhi-110 001.
-Sd-
SHP. JASMINE JALAL BEGAM
General Secretary
AIPSBCOEA.
RESOLUTIONS OF AIPSBCOEA 6TH AIC:
AIPSBCOEA/CHQ/Resolutions of All India Conference/2022 Dated: 06.01.2022
To
The Secretary,
Department of Posts,
Dak Bhawan, Sansad Marg,
New Delhi-110 001.
Subject: Resolutions of the 6th All India Conference of AIPSBCOEA …
Reference: Notice:AIPSBCOEA/CHQ-All India Conference/2021 Dt. : 02.11.2021
On behalf of AIPSBCOEA CHQ, the resolutions which were passed in the All India Conference of the All India Postal SBCO Employees Association held at Chennai, Tamil Nadu Circle from 28.12.2021 to 30.12.2021 are submitted herewith for your kind perusal and necessary action Please.
1. Cadre restructuring of SBCO:-
The works related to Cadre restructuring of SBCO was completed and the recommendations/reports had been submitted by the committee. In the periodical meeting held on 18.11.2021 also it was replied that within 15 days the report will be sent to the Department of Expenditure, Minister of Finance. But still now the Cadre restructuring is not yet done for SBCO. The Honorable Secretary Post may kindly look into the matter personally to issue the orders for Cadre restructuring at the earliest Please. Many letters have already been written regarding Cadre restructuring of SBCO, Nomenclature change, Change of control of SBCO to GM PA & F etc. on behalf of AIPSBCOEA CHQ dated 28.8.2019, 25.11.2019, 02.12.2019, 18.5.2020, 09.7.2020, 13.7.2020, 30.9.2020, 29.1.2021, 18.6.2021, 30.8.2021 etc.
Hence, it is requested that Cadre Restructuring may please be done immediately without any further delay as already its more than 2 months since the report has been submitted by the Committee.And almost five years have been completed since Cadre restructuring was done for PAPO cadre. The SBCO PAs who are very senior to the PAPO officials have not yet receuved their LSG/HSG II /HSG I promotions due to the abnormal delay. The SBCO officials are facing huge loss both in their promotion career and pay benefits due to the delay in Cadre restructuring. Cadre restructuring is the only hope for SBCO Cadre to get their promotions without declining and to pave way for a bright future of SBCO wing and its employees.
2. 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 Head offices, sub-offices and branch offices is contrary to the statutory rules. The AIPSBCOEA CHQ letter was written regarding -to stop irregular recovery on SBCO staff/2021 dated 27.09.2021. 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 under Rule 11 (iii) CCS (CCA) Rules 1965, that, 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 may be exempted from contributory negligence as they are not involved directly in monetary transactions.
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.
Therefore, the implication of this OM
is to recover the entire loss from the delinquent official .
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 SBCO 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.Os 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.Os 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.
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.
SBCO is not a fraud detecting agency, it is a decentralized audit which was bifurcated from the AG P&T for local convenience whose work is to check whether the SB Orders, Control Procedures and Rules issued by the Department of Posts from time to time with respect to the POSB schemes are being followed correctly without violation.
Hence it is requested to exempt the SBCO staff from imposing recovery in the name of contributory negligence as per D.O letter from the Director General Postal Services, D.O. No. INV-17/18/2021- INV DOP dated 29.11.2021.
3. Acute staff shortage in SBCO Cadre:
Inspite of several letters written by the All India Postal SBCO Employees Association CHQ, it is noticed that the acute staff shortage position in SBCO is not looked into seriously by the Administration. But to the irony many different /additional works are being entrusted to SBCO. In the last periodical meeting held on 18.11.2021 also it was informed that the filling up of vacancy as a onetime measure by conducting a special recruitment drive is not possible. The SBCO officials are being neglected without giving manpower. Only single official is sitting in many of the SBCO units. The shortage in General line for instance 120/200 may be overall managed by providing staff to all sections approximately. But it cannot be done in the case of the SBCO branch, because the function of the SBCO staff is not to do the work alone but to check the work done by the POSB branch of the concerned Head office and all the Sub offices/Branch post offices under that H.O. with respect to the rules and orders framed by the Department from time to time. The General line PAs do the POSB work which is being checked by the SBCO officials right from 1970s when SBCO was formed. The staff of SBCO are being isolated for pointing out the mistakes done at all levels in the form of objections without caring for their own wish and welfare and the seriousness of the objections. It is requested that the vacancies may be filled up in all the SBCO units to the maximum possible extent by giving preference to do the audit and checking work efficiently.
4. Transfer liability of SBCO officials:-
Being a Circle cadre the transfer liability of the SBCO officials is already tough. Above this due to the acute staff shortage applying and getting intra/inter Circle transfers has become a dream for the SBCO officials. As per the DOP OM NO.X-12/6/2021-SPN-II dated December 31st 2021 regarding Cadre management of Postal Assistant and Sorting Assistant, it has been decided that the Circle shall be the recruiting unit for PAs in Postal Divisions/GPO and SAs in RMS Divisions, however there shall be no change in the appointing and disciplinary authority. In the above order it was mentioned in point no. 4 that “Although circle shall be the recruiting unit, an official after allotment/appointment to/in a Division shall not be transferred outside the Division except on his own request(Inter–Circle/Intra-Circle under Rule-38 of Postal Manual Volume IV) or in administrative interest (Rule-37 of Postal Manual Volume IV. Rotational transfer will continue to be done within Division.” As already SBCO is a circle cadre, the allotment of officials is done by the Circle to regions then regions to divisions. Hence the point no. 4 mentioned above may be applicable to SBCO officials also after allotment to the concerned Divisions. If the transfer liability is restricted to Divisional level except for request cases, the difficulties faced by the SBCO officials with respect to transfer liability will be very much reduced.
5. Future of SBCO:-
Suggestion I:
A Committee was constituted for Cadre review/restructuring of Gr ‘C’ /Gr ‘B’(Non- Gaz ) of PAOs vide memo dated 05.03.2020 under the chairmanship of Sr. DDG (PAF). As our Association is already demanding for audit status and bringing the SBCO staff under the control of Director of Postal Accounts (PAO), the Cadre restructuring may be done in SBCO at par with DPA which is under the Control of GM PA & F as both the wings are performing the same kind of work. At the outset, SBCO was bifurcated from the Audit and Accounts with the approval of CAG. Moreover, SBCO is discharging audit duties only even now w.r.t all the SB Categories as per control procedures on behalf of GM PA & Fat H.O level. So, the change of Control of SBCO to GM PA & F is fully justified.
SBCO cadre may be decentralized at divisional levels for effective functioning to avoid the undue hardships faced by the SBCO officials at the end of every tenure and to work with full dedication and mental peace.
It is high time for Department to take a correct decision regarding the future of SBCO cadre and safeguarding the purpose of forming the SBCO cadre from the AG P&T.
Amidst the ongoing process of proposal of decentralization of the Postal accounts and obvious opt out by the officials of Postal Accounts to get decentralized and to work in the Head Post offices, the SBCO officials who are already well established at the Head post offices can carry out the accounts work on behalf of Postal Accounts under the direct control of GM A & F.
The department thinks that changing the recruitment rules and allowing SBCO officials to work as General line PAs in SBCO and vice versa will solve the staff shortage issue. But, this will open floodgates of new problems and the POSB will be totally wither away. The process of exchanging between SBCO PAs and General line PAs will surely dilute the Audit setup and defeat the very purpose of forming the Saving Bank Control Organization. The SBCO officials who opt for General line will face many new unheard problems .Hence it is requested that the Department of Posts should bring the SBCO under the control of GM PA & F and allow the cadre to do the work of Postal accounts after decentralization which is the only solution for all the problems faced by the SBCO cadre.
(OR)
Suggestion II:
The SBCO officials are now to opt for working as General line PAs in compelling situation only due to the following reasons:
(i) Non filling up of vacant posts and excess workload by allotment of works of vacant seats to the remaining skeleton strength of officials or even single SBCO official.
(ii) Due to staff shortage getting transfer to their parent region/division has become remote.
(iii) Imposing irrational and irregular recovery on the innocent SBCO officials under contributory negligence for the frauds intentionally committed by some delinquent officials.
The reasons cited from (i) to (iii) may be settled immediately by giving adequate staff strength to SBCO, restricting the transfer liability to divisional level, to exempt the SBCO staff from imposing recovery in the name of contributory negligence by implementing the contents of the D.O letter from the Director General Postal Services, D.O. No. INV-17/18/2021- INV DOP dated 29.11.2021 at all levels (field level in all the H.Os) to solve all the problems and difficulties faced by the SBCO cadre.
If the Department of Post is not ready to consider neither of the above suggestions submitted on behalf of AIPSBCOEA CHQ nor serious for future of the SBCO cadre to meet the purpose of formation of SBCO from the AG P&T to function as the decentralized auditing and to safe guard the crores and crores of public money invested in the POSB schemes throughout the country for the welfare of the customers, the staff of SBCO may be given the following options.
The Administration has forced the Association major stake holders of the SBCO staff to take the following stand in giving option regarding merger of cadres.
a. Option should be given for merger with Postal Accounts which is our considered demand for several years.
b. Option should be given for merger with PAPO.
(In both cases of a & b , seniority should be maintained at par with the staff of Postal Accounts and PAPO. Choice of place of posting should be given to the SBCO officials in the PAPO cadre.)
c. Option should be given for remaining in SBCO. (For staff opting for this option status quo to be maintained and their transfer liability should be restricted to divisional level).
With very heavy heart , we are to take the above decision, as SBCO officials who are functioning all along as the watch dog of the total POSB and checking whether all orders and rules issued from time to time are followed without violation and raising objections to avoid any loss to the Department of Posts are made refugees in our own home of Department of Posts. Already each and every SBCO official is facing different problems as mentioned above like staff shortage, non transfer to their parent region/division, recovery under contributory negligence, so becoming refugees in our own home of Department of Posts is nothing but add insult to injury. But we are forced to accept the same in the given current situation due to the helpless attitude of the Department towards SBCO.
Hence, on behalf of AIPSBCOEA CHQ, it is requested that the Honorable Secretary Posts being the Head of the family of the Department of Posts may look into the resolutions seriously and issue early orders for cadre restructuring/review after which the future of SBCO may be decided as per the suggestions of the Association.
With Regards,
-Sd-
SHP. JASMINE JALAL BEGAM
General Secretary
AIPSBCOEA.
Copy To:
Director General,
Department of Post,
Dak Bhawan, Sansad Marg, New Delhi-110 001.
Member (p),
Department of Post,
Dak Bhawan, Sansad Marg, New Delhi-110 001.
The Deputy Director General Establishment,
Department of Post,
Dak Bhawan, Sansad Marg, New Delhi-110 001.
The Director SR & Legal,
Department of Post,
Dak Bhawan, Sansad Marg, New Delhi-110 001.
-Sd-
SHP. JASMINE JALAL BEGAM
General Secretary
AIPSBCOEA.
