Bhubaneswar: To maintain transparency in government, the BJP Government has issued guidelines on appointment of Private Secretary and OSD to Ministers.
As per an order issued by the General Administration and Public Grievance department in this regard, the Ministers shall have discretion in the matter of selection of serving officers for appointment as Private Secretaries/Officers on Special Duty (OSD) in their Office, subject to the terms and conditions.
Appointments to the post of Private Secretary to Ministers shall be made from among the officers in the rank of Additional Secretary or Joint Secretary while appointments to the post of OSD can be made from among the officers in the rank of Joint Secretary or Deputy Secretary provided, the OSD must be at least one rank junior to the PS of the concerned Minister.
An officer, who has held the post of PS /OSD in the five years, immediately preceding the current appointment, will not be eligible. It must be ensured that there is a minimum gap of five years between the previous service as PS or OSD and the present appointment.
To become eligible for PS or OSD, an officer should not have any pending disciplinary proceeding against him/her; no Vigilance / criminal proceeding has been registered and pending against him/her; no adverse remarks must have been recorded against him/her in his/her CCR/PAR.
Besides, he/she must have been rated “Very Good” or “Outstanding” for at least 36 months in the preceding 60 months of CCR/PAR. However, any ratings recorded as “NRC”, within the past sixty-month assessment period, shall be excluded from consideration;
For periods where an NRC rating has been recorded, the individual’s performance evaluations from the immediately preceding period (prior to the sixty-month window) shall be considered for assessment purposes;
In the letter all the concerned Departments were asked to strictly adhere to these guidelines while making appointments to the posts of PS/ OSD in the office of the Ministers.