New Delhi: IAS, IPS officers have now been prohibited from accepting awards from any private organisation. If they want to do so, they would need prior approval. However, there is one condition for the approval by competent authority. The awards cannot consist of any monetary component which include cash or services.
The Department of Personnel (Centre) has issued an order regarding this saying that approval will only be given in exceptional cases. This order came after the government noticed IAS, IPS and Indian Forest officers accepting awards even after prior instruction. Personnel ministry said that awards will only be approved if the private organisation fulfils the criteria of being transparent and unimpeachable.
In the order, the ministry also cited a three decades old instruction which said that awards given by private organisations should not be encouraged as government bodies already have criteria to honour work & merit of officers.
