Personnel dept cancels FCI ED suspension, terms food ministry order legally non-existent

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NEW DELHI: The personnel department (DoPT) on Friday afternoon cancelled a food ministry order to suspend an executive director of Food Corporation of India (FCI), treating it as “non-est” -- which means legally non-existent from the beginning.Officials said such an order is a rare instance. ED in FCI is equivalent to a joint secretary level officer at Centre.The DoPT order that came just four days after the food ministry suspended the Indian Audit and Accounts Service (IAAS) officer said “placing Ashutosh Joshi under suspension is treated as non-est”. DoPT ordered his immediate repatriation to the parent cadre.TOI has learnt that the food ministry had gone ahead with disciplinary proceedings following a “neutral committee” probe that found alleged irregularities, including diversion, in the sale of rice to North Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation Limited (NERAMAC) under the Open Market Sale Scheme (domestic) by FCI’s Delhi region.The DoPT order mentioned that the Controlled and Auditor General of India, on Thursday, had requested the DoPT for repatriation of the officer to parent cadre.There was no response from the food ministry to repeated query on why its suspension order was treated null and void.Officials said that while four other executives of FCI have also been suspended based on the findings of the “neutral committee”, it remains to be seen what happens to their fate after the recent development.

Meanwhile, on July 6 itself, the food ministry set up a “review and restructuring” of the organisational framework in FCI to “improve administrative efficiency, eliminate ambiguity in decision making and fixing responsibility in future”.The four-member committee has been asked to submit its recommendations in six weeks. It has been tasked to review the functional responsibility of the ED level and other intermediary officers.