Despite incentives, vacancies of order of 9 pc continued to exist, says CAG
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has recommended the existing vacancies of Special Police Officers (SPOs) in Jammu and Kashmir shall be filled up expeditiously with adherence to due process so as to achieve the benefits proposed in the scheme.
In order to augment the operational capability of the erstwhile State police, a scheme for engagement of SPOs was introduced in 1995.
Although this scheme was in existence since 1995, a specific project under the Prime Minister’s Development Package (PMDP) of the Government of India (GoI) for Rs 450 crore was approved (March 2016) with the objective of improving living conditions of SPOs by enhancing their monthly remuneration in a graded manner from Rs 3,000 to a maximum of Rs 6,000, with effect from January 2016.
The project was to be implemented for two financial years 2015 to 2017 or up to the currency of the Security Related Expenditure (SRE) scheme, whichever was earlier.
As per the Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India on PMDP for the year ended 31 March 2019, “Out of 79 auditee units, 20 units were selected for detailed check by judgmental sampling method by adopting the criteria of the maximum number of SPOs deployed for sample selection”.
“In this project, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), GoI was to provide resource support to the State Government by reimbursement of expenditure through Security Related Expenditure (SRE). At the State level, the project was implemented by the Director-General of Police (DGP) under the overall supervision of Principal Secretary, Home Department, GoJ&K with Senior Superintendents of Police (SSPs) as implementing agencies”, it added.
“Scrutiny of performance of SPOs by the Department (March 2019) at the behest of GoI resulted in disengagement of 2,650 SPOs (18 per cent) out of 14,539 SPOs engaged during the period from 2013 to 2019. The entire cost of the project of Rs 450 crore had been incurred by the Department while regular honorarium charges of SPOs were booked under SRE being reimbursed by the GoI ”, the report added.
Compliance to Instructions-Vacant Posts, the report reads, “Total number of 25,474 posts of SPOs were sanctioned by GoI during the year 1995 and thereafter 10,000 additional posts of SPOs were sanctioned in September 2016, raising the total number of sanctioned posts of SPOs to 35,474. Audit observed that only 30,231 SPOs were in position as on September 2019 against 35,474 sanctioned posts and total SPOs in position increased to only 32,169 as of August 2020, leaving a vacancy of 3,305 (about 9 per cent) despite the increased honorarium”.
“Thus, despite the incentive provided under the Scheme the vacancies of the order of nine per cent continued to exist”, it added.
Retention of SPOs, the report reads, “The MHA, GoI directed (August 2017) that 4,25118 posts of SPOs which were lying vacant, were required to be kept in abeyance till the process adopted by the GoJ&K for their recruitment was approved by the GoI. Instructions were issued (August 2017) by the Police Headquarters (PHQ), GoJ&K that there would be no engagement of SPOs till further orders from the MHA, GoI”.
“However, 1,066 SPOs in 12 sampled offices of the Department were retained in excess of the sanctioned limit and wages up to December 2017 were drawn contrary to the said instructions”, it added.
“The Department stated (August 2020) that due to late receipt of the MHA communication, the process of engagement continued and concurrence for 940 SPOs engaged during the period was accorded by the MHA in March 2018. The reply is not acceptable as 1,066 SPOs were retained, though concurrence for retention was for 940 SPOs only”, the report reads.
“Thus, manpower in excess of the authorized numbers continued and was being paid without regularization of their services. It is recommended that the existing vacancies be filled up expeditiously with adherence to due process so as to achieve the benefits proposed in the scheme”, the CAG report added.
