Post-retirement jobs: Do some govt officers get a better deal than others?

Data seem to suggest that those who retired prior to 2016 have not been able to land as many plum postings as officers who bid farewell from that year onwards

The record of post-retirement assignments grabbed by top government officers in the past few years clearly shows those who have retired from 2016 onwards have landed themselves a far better deal than cohorts from a few years earlier. A sample list of IAS officers, drawn up for each year since 2013, shows those who have fared the worst are those whose farewell came pretty soon after the NDA government was sworn in or had just about a year or so to go in the new regime. 

But even among them, those who were seen as close to the present government