Austerity drive: Govt officials to pay for hotel stay abroad

All functionaries will now be required to stay at foreign missions.

LAHORE: The federal government is learnt to have instructed all officials going abroad to stay in the country’s missions — and if they opt to stay in hotels, they should pay out of their own pockets.

The move seems to be a part of the government’s austerity drive to tackle the trend of delegates staying in hotels abroad and charging the government all their expenses — which is contrary to official guidelines.  Now, all federal and provincial ministers, senior government functionaries and delegates going abroad have been directed to inform the foreign ministry beforehand to facilitate their stay in Pakistani missions and provide sufficient advance notice for the ministry to make proper arrangements. They are also required to inform about any changes in their itinerary in a timely manner.

Requisite financial sanctions, duly endorsed by the finance division, should be issued to cover expenses, including funds for hiring transport vehicles and accessing VIP lounges. Daily allowance should be paid by  the ministries/departments concerned. Hotel expenses should be borne by the visitors. If a mission is asked to book accommodation, then the concurrence of the pertinent financial authority should be sent in advance to the respective mission.

If the visit is cancelled, especially on short notice, visitors should bear the cancellation cost charged by most hotels.

The foreign ministry has conveyed to all federal ministries and chief secretaries to comply with new guidelines “in letter and spirit”.

A cabinet division official said that according to the previous policy, all non-essential delegates and visitors were required to pay their own hotel expenses because they were not entitled to be reimbursed by the government.

But, he said, most official visitors stayed in hotels on public expenditure, adding that the foreign ministry had to bear all such expenses.

After the move to discourage the misuse of privilege by the prime minister, the number of official visits would “surely be reduced”, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 26^th, 2010.