CCI proposes amendments to recruitment rules to enhance efficiency

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has proposed changes to recruitment rules aiming to support the regulator's professional and administrative capacities in light of its growing obligations.

These modifications are a vital step towards improving CCI's effectiveness, given its enlarged mandate.

The draft amendments pertain to CCI (salary, allowances, other terms and conditions of service of the secretary and officers and other employees of the commission and the number of such officers and other employees) rules.

These changes necessitate the recruitment of additional officers at the feeder level to ensure efficient and timely bound manner.

In a consultation paper released by CCI, the regulator proposed introduction of direct recruitment at level-10 and level-8 of the 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC) for professional and administrative stream officers, respectively.

"For IT stream, it is proposed to have direct recruitment at Level-10 of 7th CPC", it said.

The initiative will attract dynamic young professionals, providing a strong foundation for CCI’s workforce.

The competition watchdog also proposed that direct recruitment will be limited to entry-level posts across both professional and administrative streams in the normal course, in line with other sectoral regulators.

"The ratio of direct recruitment and deputation is proposed as 9:1 for entry level posts. In all other cadres where number of posts is 3 or more, the proposed ratio is 2:1 for promotion and deputation," CCI said in a consultation paper.

The commission said it has invited stakeholders to submit their comments on the draft recruitment rules by September 23.

The workload of the commission has grown over time, making a more organised and effective hiring procedure necessary to guarantee that it can carry out its purpose.

Currently, CCI is assisted by officers from professional and administrative streams, with professionals drawn from the fields of law, economics, and financial analysis.

The existing recruitment rules, notified in 2009, sanctioned 90 posts in the professional stream, excluding the secretary. However, the number was reduced to 88 following a restructuring exercise in 2019.