Kochi: Former additional chief secretary T Balakrishnan received a whopping Rs 1.01 crore as remuneration during his three-year tenure as managing director of Inkel, a private company in which the government holds minority shares, violating rules that govern the conduct of serving and retired officers of Indian Administrative Service (IAS).
As additional chief secretary (Industries), Mr Balakrishnan was holding the additional charge of Inkel managing director from March 5, 2011 till he retired on October 31, 2011.
He took charge as Inkel managing director the next day. The Inkel annual report for the financial year 2013-14 available on the company website says Mr Balakrishnan’s remuneration for the year was Rs 1.01 crore; he received no money in the previous year.
The report contains an explanation that “remuneration to the managing director for the year is as approved by the shareholders…and includes Rs 65 lakh relating to earlier periods as per such approval.”
The Inkel director board had fixed his salary as Rs 36 lakh a year. This means Mr Balakrishnan received remuneration from Inkel for the entire period of 2011-12 which includes seven months in which he was drawing salaries as a senior IAS official. This is a serious violation of service rules applicable for serving officers.
Mr Balakrishnan also violated the rules which bar IAS officers from taking up employment with private companies immediately on retirement.
As per the rules, a pensioner shall not accept any commercial employment before the expiry of one year from the date of his retirement, except with the previous sanction of the Central government.
Authoritative sources told DC that Mr Balakrishnan had got no such sanction, explaining why he took no remuneration in the first two years. The cooling off period for IAS officers was two years but the government brought it down to one year in 2007.
