Dear Comrades,
No.142/15/2010-AVD-I
Government of India
Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions
(Department of Personnel and Training)
North Block, New Delhi
Dated 31° July, 2012
OFFICE MEMORANDUM
Subject: Grant of Honorarium to Inquiry Officers (I0)/Presenting Officers (PO) - Consolidated instructions regarding
The undersigned is directed to say that the Department of Personnel and Training have issued
instructions vide NO 1344/99-AVD-I dated 29th June 2001 and 7th April
2003 on the subject of honorarium to the Inqui0 Officers and Presenting
Officers covering the aspects of rates of honorarium, appointment of
retired officers as Inquiry Officer, terms and conditions for payment of
honorarium etc from time to time. The rates of honorarium payable to
IO/P0 were last revised vide this Department's OM no 142/20/2008-AVD-I
dated 27th July 2009. [Copy attached].
2. A Committee of Experts set up to review the procedure of Disciplinary/vigilance inquiries
and to recommend measures for their expeditious disposal under the
chairmanship of P.0 Hota, former Chainman of UPSC in May 2010 had made a
series of recommendations in July 2010 including the rates of
honorarium The detailed recommendation of the expert committee is
available on the website of this Department. It can be accessed through
the Link.http://persmin.nic.in/DOPT/Publication/CommitteeReport/HotaCommitteeRevort/HotaComm itteeReport.pdf
. The Committee had made specific recommendations as regards the rates
of honorarium to IO/PO. The Recommendations of the Committee on the
proposed increases in Honorarium relating to IO/P0 are contained in
paras 37, 42-44 of the report of the Committee.
3. The recommendations of the Expert Committee on the aspect of revision of rates of honorarium
along with some other related measures were examined in the Department
and was placed before the Group of Ministries on Corruption, set up for
examining measures,1 including legislative and administrative, to tackle
corruption and improve transparency. The / Group of Ministers while
considering the Terms of Reference also considered the recommendations
of the HOTA Committee and recommended that the remuneration of the IOs
and POs may be fixed, keeping in mind the recommendations of the HOTA
Committee. These recommendations of the GOM have been accepted by the
Government.
4. It has therefore been decided to revise the existing rates of honorarium payable to 10/P0 in line with the recommendations of the Expert Committee. The revised rates of Honorarium and other allowances payable to IO both serving and retired officers and PO(serving)
and the terms and conditions governing the same is indicated in
Annexure -1 to this OM. The rates of Honorarium stated therein are
ceilings and the concerned ministry/department
where the misconduct was committed may decide the exact quantum of
honorarium to be paid keeping in mind the volume of work involved in
specific cases and the terms and Conditions indicated in the Annexure
-1.
5.
The revised structure of rates of honorarium and allowances as
indicated in Annexure- I are intended to be made applicable to
Departmental Proceedings including inquiry proceedings undertaken by the
committee on Sexual Harassment, by Ministries /Department in respect of
officials /officers serving under different cadres of services under
their administrative control. However, in case a cadre of a service or
organizations such as autonomous bodies have a separate set of rules and
instructions for regulating honorarium to IO/P0 in existence they may
choose to continue with their own set of instructions. Fully or
partially funded autonomous bodies may retain their own provisions so
long as they are not more beneficial than what has been proposed in this
OM.
6. This orders will take effect from the date of issue of this OM and will also apply to all inquiries in progress.
7. The services of serving officers may be used as IO and PO to the extent possible in the
conduct of departmental inquiries. However, Central Vigilance
Commission has been requested to create and maintain a panel of retired
officers/officials willing to serve as JO for conducting departmental
inquiries and for this purpose also design a procedure for inviting
applications from the retired Government Servants to be followed by the
Ministries and Departments. Till such time such a panel of retired
officers become available from CVC, the concerned ministries
/departments may, where it is not possible to use the services of a
serving officer as Inquiry Officer for conducting departmental
inquiries, use the services of officers who have retired from
Ministries/Departments, for conducting such departmental inquiries.
8. This issues with the concurrence of Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure vide their UO no.14(4)/2009-E-II(B) dated 26.3.2012 and 5.6.2012.
9. Hindi Version will follow.
(P.K. Ravi)
Under Secretary to the Government of India
