Status of Officers deputed to DGH, Delhi from ONGC dated 09/01/2006

Sir,

Kindly refer to the Office memorandum No. O-23012/1/05 – ONG-III dtd. 14.12.2005 issued by Under Secretary of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, GOI. This office memorandum pertains to the Manpower requirement of DGH.

Let me at the outset bring to your notice that the terms and conditions mentioned in the O.M. are totally unacceptable to the Officers of ONGC as it fails to bring out the terms and conditions of the proposed secondment of Officers from ONGC to DGH as well as it violates the terms and conditions of the deputation as governed by ONGC service rules and the Government of India O.M. No.: 10(24)/E.III/60 dtd. 4th May, 1961, as modified from time to time. ONGC has no policy of secondment to Government of India or any of its department. The policy of secondment is only for Joint Ventures (JVs), where as per service rules 1995, ONGC seconds an employee to JVs and the employees are eligible for JV Allowances etc.

Today, the highly qualified, experienced and knowledgeable manpower of ONGC is demanding and commanding a lot of respect in the national/international Oil and Gas sector. Infact DGH has been utilizing their knowledge, experience and expertise developed while they have been working for ONGC and not vice versa. Let me also add that time and again replacements provided to DGH have been highly qualified engineers. Therefore, there has never been any staff related problem from ONGC’s side. Even today, nearly 60 officers of ONGC have been deputed to DGH. I am sure the Director General - DGH would vouch for the exemplary work being carried out by ONGC engineers at DGH.

Today, an ONGC officer is commanding very high salary and allowances in the international Oil and Gas Market. Their professional approach and knowledge is being given a commanding respect. Definitely, if DGH wants to avail the services of the ONGC Officers, then they would have to be paid extra for their expertise and knowledge. Infact, this issue has been causing a great heart burn to the Officers of ONGC that utilization of their expertise and experience has been under compensated at DGH. The deputation allowance instead of being revised has been stagnating since last pay revision; though the Government of India guidelines are very clear on the deputation.

Such unilateral decisions would harm the quality of people being sent to DGH and would infact become an impediment rather than being of any use to them. Due to the vague nature of secondment (long term loan), many of the officers would like to come out of deputation leading to staffing problem which was non existent till date.

The present set of Officers has been deputed to DGH under certain terms and conditions of ONGC as well as guidelines issued by Government of India. These terms and conditions cannot be reversed midway of the deputation period. Accordingly, it is requested that the terms and conditions of new pattern of engaging expertise for DGH be prepared in detail before it can be implemented. Till the terms and conditions are prepared and approved, the officers of ONGC would continue on deputation only as per the existing terms and conditions of deputation.

With warm regards,

Yours sincerely,

(Amit Kumar)
President ASTO, Delhi

Copy For information to:

1. C&MD, ONGC, New Delhi.
2. DG, DGH, New Delhi.
3. Director (HR), ONGC, New Delhi
4. GGM-Chief, ER, ONGC, Dehradun.
5. Sh. O.P. Banwari, Under Secretary, MOPNG, New Delhi