Armed Forces Headquarters Civil Service (AFHQ)

The full form of AFHQ is Armed Forces Headquarters Civil Service. It is a group ‘B’ service incepted into the government of India in the year 1968. It engages civilian officers in administration roles for integrated services of defence, namely army, navy, and air force services. They are stationed at the Ministry of Defence Headquarters and in many inter-service organizations functioning under the Ministry of Defence.

The primary role of these officers is to ensure smooth administration of the integrated services at various designated headquarters. They are not assigned any roles in technical posts and military combat operations in any of the three defence services. They are actively engaged in activities like civilian services, secretarial level tasks, housekeeping activities, clerical support jobs, and related tasks.

Aspiring candidates who want to become an AFHQ officer have to attempt and emerge successful in all three rounds of the IAS Exam. Following success in the Prelims, Mains and the Interview round, candidates can check if they are shortlisted in the final list of candidates, based on individual ranking and other associated factors, candidates can get chosen for this service. This article gives detail information about Armed Forces Headquarters Civil Service Exam, including its eligibility criteria, syllabus, exam pattern, training, salary structure, recruitment process, job profile, perks and more.

Armed Forces Headquarters Civil Service – Roles & Responsibilities

Co-ordination and management of ground staff at headquarters.
Filed duties like organization, selection, and distribution of work among staff.
Filing cases, analyzing them, and conducting proper surveys followed by extensive reporting.
Extending proposals in case of pending cases and reviving them from time to time.
Performing a full loop by establishing contact and communication with participating clients in cases that are alive and on-going in the present time.
Systematic collection of worker data, up-gradation, and fool-proof record keeping. Organizing data in software and backing them up from time to time.
Submitting updates, circulars, and extensive reports to the government.
Conducting surveys and checks on any under-performing entity and bringing it to the notice of the government.
Adhering to government rules, regulations, and provisions for record management activities. Implementation of modern day techniques to upgrade document storage and information collection activities. Keeping a high level of automation in data redressal and data retrieval causes.
Section officers are bestowed with certain powers that allow them to take independent charge whenever there is any legal mismatch in documentation and records.

Training Offered to Probationary AFHQ Officers

Inducted candidates are provided a foundation course at defence headquarters training institute. Here they are giving elaborate training on the service, and in-house specialised modules are created for their learning. They are also given on-job training to help them understand their roles in the service headquarters and other related inter-service organizations.

Postings after Training

Section officers are designated in tasks where they take part in engagements concerning government decision matters.
They are posted in departments that look after the welfare, work culture of staff members of individual sections.
They will be involved in engagements that will initiate files for tendering proposals.
They will be posted in teams at headquarters to study, analyze, and research existing policies at headquarter units.
Looking after management and administration sections of staff headquarters.
Performing some and all of the above duties at integrated headquarters of the combined defence services.
They are sent to various units to discharge their duties as section officers. Some of the common units where they get their posting are staff headquarters, integrated headquarters of the ministry of defence. They may also get higher level postings at integrated staff headquarters of defence services. Apart from this, they have a very vital role to play in inter-service organizations coming under the ministry of defence. The secretariat of the ministry of defence requires the duties of service officers to implement orders passed by the government of India in relevant sections.

Armed Forces Headquarters Civil Service – Career Prospects

At the apex level, the supreme controlling authority is headed by the Joint secretary in association with the Chief administrative officer.
Under group B assigned roles, they serve in various postings as section officers.
They also serve as non-gazette assistants under the same group B category.
Armed forces headquarters civilian officers and staff have different roles from other officers. They have envisaged the task of handling human resource welfare entities like their salary, grade pays, perks, reimbursements, pension facilities, canteen facilities, etc.
They are envisaged with different roles in the assistant grade level.
They may be promoted further to positions such as Deputy Director, Joint Director Grades, Director, and Principal Director Grades.

Officers designated as Group B officers via recruitment by Civil Services Examination can rise to the cadre of Group A officers too. This requires the promotion of the candidates after they discharge their duties in their respective roles for a minimum of 3 years. Some roles require five years minimum service for promotion to higher levels, and the maximum requirement is fixed at six years for senior scale roles. Thereby, in the career graph of a section officer starting as Group ‘B’ officer, he can steadily climb to Group A cadres.