Government officials have been told that they can no longer use Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) as milch cows for getting expensive mobile phones, chauffeur-driven cars, air conditioners, laptops or paying for their air travel or hotel stay.

On instructions from the Prime Minister’s Office, the Cabinet Secretary has directed that “ministries/departments which have CPSEs under their control should not permit their officers to use facilities belonging to or at the cost of the CPSEs”.

And if there is “a felt need” to modernise the functioning of babus through these perks, the ministries should pay out of their budgets for these facilities, “instead of depending on the CPSEs”.

The directive comes after The Indian Express reported that the Petroleum Ministry was forcing state-run ONGC to provide cars and mobiles, and pay for mobile bills, air fares and hotel stay for officers.

A Core Group of Officers, comprising the Secretaries of Expenditure, Personnel and Public Enterprises, then recommended that facilities from CPSEs for “personal use” should be “strictly prohibited”, and officers could avail of them for official purposes only after approval by the concerned Secretary.

The PMO, however, did not buy this argument. On May 27, it wrote to the Cabinet Secretary that allowing use of manpower, laptops, mobiles and vehicles in “exigencies of work” would suggest a fallacy that ministries with CPSEs have more work than those without CPSEs, but are underprovided.

“Permitting some ministries to obtain such facilities from CPSEs is problematic. They tend to become perks that other ministries do not have. This also creates a perverse incentive for officers to prefer ministries with CPSEs. Apart from this being unfair and inefficient, it has the potential to compromise the independence of the government direction,” it wrote.

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