MHA seeks details of bureaucrats’ foreign trips

While lieutenant-governor Najeeb Jung is busy scanning the foreign tour details of city ministers, their personal staff, and other officers, the Union home ministry has directed all the Union Territories, including national capital territory of Delhi, to furnish details of such visits undertaken by officers of the rank of deputy secretaries and above since 2013.

The home ministry said that administrative heads of all the Union Territories should immediately upload the details of the foreign visits undertaken by their officers. A note issued by the MHA said that at the time of forwarding any new proposal of tour, it should be certified that the previous tour details and outcome of post visit of individual officers is already uploaded. It said that the department of expenditure was pressing hard to submit outcome of the visits undertaken by the officers.

The MHA has also made it clear that the details of the foreign tours should be submitted in a specified format giving details whether officers had got their respective issues resolved, new ideas they had generated, diplomatic and economic benefits, training exposure, and self evaluation of their tour.

Earlier, Mr Jung had directed the Delhi government’s general administration department (GAD) to furnish details about the number of foreign visits undertaken by city ministers, their personal staff, and other officials during the last 18 months.

It is learnt that the L-G had also directed a three-member panel to examine alleged irregularities in foreign tours undertaken by the ministers and officers on official purposes at the government expense without seeking approval of the competent authority.

In response to a RTI filed by BJP leader Vivek Garg, the Delhi government’s GAD had replied that city home minister Satyendra Jain had visited foreign countries thrice while deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia had made four visits. Delhi labour minister Gopal Rai had visited foreign countries only once. Sacked AAP leader and ex-Delhi minister Sandeep Kumar made personal visit to the US twice. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his minister Satyendra Jain had gone to the Vatican City to attend Mother Teresa’s canonisation ceremony held on September 4. This was the first foreign visit undertaken by Mr Kejriwal after assuming the charge of Delhi chief minister on February 15, 2015. Mr Jung had earlier refused to give sanction to chief secretary K.K. Sharma and Jain’s OSD DC, Mr Goel, to visit Vatican City along with Mr Kejriwal.

The L-G’s decision to scrutinise details of the foreign tours of the ministers had not gone well with the AAP leadership. Hitting out at the L-G, Mr Jain had said that such visits by his party ministers were comparatively less than that of their counterparts in other parts of the country. “Foreign tours are undertaken by AAP ministers for only official purpose after the government’s approval. If we go abroad for personal purpose, we spend our own money.”

After introducing stringent guidelines on official trips abroad, the Central government had earlier initiated scrutiny of such trips by ministers and bureaucrats to check the intended outcome as well as the visit’s funding and spending.