Outsourcing should reduce expenses: Finance Department.

NAGPUR: The state finance department had earlier announced that henceforth administrative departments should not go in for filling up vacancies but get the work done by outsourcing.

Now, it has put in a rider which states that outsourcing should reduce the expenditure by at least 15 to 20% than what it would have been if the work was done by filling up the vacant posts.

This is expected to curb misuse of funds by awarding outrageous rates to agencies doing the outsourced jobs.

A senior revenue official told TOI that with increase in outsourcing of government work, such norms were long overdue. "Public money should be spent on development works and not on paying salaries to government employees and other administrative expenses.

This is the reason for not filling up of vacant posts. However, if the expenditure increases due to outsourcing then the principle is defeated," he explained.

The government has in fact come out with guidelines for outsourcing. Another directive is that new posts should not be created for supervising outsourced work. "In some departments, government officials are claiming that they are overstretched as their supervisorial responsibilities have increased. They must realize that this is going to be system henceforth and they must adapt to it."

The other directives are routine procedures. Outsourcing should be done by calling tenders and the process should be approved by a senior officer. The government department concerned will not have responsibility towards employees of the company doing the outsourced job.

As outsourcing has financial implications, various government departments had sought directions from finance ministry on various aspects. Now these guidelines will help the officials concerned.

The official further said that earlier government departments had tried to get the work done by appointing employees on contract basis. "The cost incurred on them was far lesser. However, subsequently these employees approached court or public representatives and got their jobs regularized. This again defeated the finance ministry's purpose."

The official pointed out that another advantage of outsourcing was that many times an officer was appointed for works that were not required through out the year. "In such cases, outsourcing saves a lot of money."


Soruce : timesofindia.indiatimes.com