By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Sep 2: The Meghalaya government has issued a new office memorandum (OM) for foreign visits by its officials.
The OM said foreign visits may be for various purposes including attending conferences, leading delegations of entrepreneurs, participating in events organised by the government of India, participating in visits due to bilateral memorandums of understanding, training, and capacity building for the implementation of externally-aided projects, and training and capacity building programmes sponsored by the state or central government.
“While these foreign visits are necessary for exposure and building the capacity of the officials, it is felt that there is a need to limit the number of foreign visits of officials in the interest of ensuring equity among officials and in the interest of ensuring economy in the expenditure incurred for foreign travel,” the OM said.
The foreign visit of any official of the state government including contractual staff will be limited to two visits per financial year according to the guidelines, the OM said.
The departments while forwarding proposals for foreign travel should clearly indicate the last foreign visit made by the officials concerned and should certify that the visit is in adherence to this memorandum, it added.
Out of two visits, the state government can sponsor only one while the other has to be borne by the Centre or an external agency, and visits made under externally aided projects will come under this category, the OM said.
Exceptions to the above limit of two visits will only arise in case the official is visiting a foreign country to receive an award on behalf of the state government, it said.
After each foreign visit, the officer concerned should submit a report of the learnings and the outcomes to the Administrative Department, the OM concluded.