Shillong: Meghalaya Cabinet on Friday announced its decision to limit foreign visits by officials of the state government to two visits per financial year.
The cabinet also decided that, if the same official has to undertake the second visit, he/she should first submit progress report of the first visit. Only after the first visit is found satisfactory, the second visit will be cleared by the state government.
Cabinet minister Paul Lyngdoh explained that henceforth foreign visits of any official of the state government, including contractual staff, will be limited to two visits per financial year.
“We have decided that the state government can sponsor only one visit, and the next will have to be borne either by government of India or an external agency. And the only exception will happen if that official is visiting a foreign country to receive an award on behalf of the Government of Meghalaya,” mentioned Lyngdoh.
The Cabinet felt the need to rationalise foreign visits taking into account the fiscal limitations due to the frequency of visits which it deemed as “irrational” as the frequency of visits does not tally with the results.
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“In order, as a prudent fiscal measure, the cabinet decided to rationalise such visit, reduce that frequency to two and also obtain progress report so that there is no wasteful expenditure of the public exchequer,” said Lyngdoh.
The minister said that the figures of how much has been spent till date could not be ascertained. Lyngdoh also mentioned that in the case of cabinet ministers, this is tied to clearance by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
Recently, MEA notified stringent conditions for clearing such proposals of visits which includes the chief minister.
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