Govt considers modification of appraisal system; lists out global best practices

Performance, Incentives

ON CIVIL services day last Sunday, cabinet secretary Ajit K Seth said that the government was seriously considering modification of numerical annual appraisal system. As senior bureaucrats gathered in New Delhi’s Vigyan Bhawan for the occasion, a background paper that was distributed among them highlighted how performance of civil servants in Singapore, South Korea, UK and Australia is judged. Here are some excerpts:

Government agrees to share appraisal dossier with retired officers

Post Retirement...

THE government has changed ruled to allow retired officers to access their Performance Appraisal Report even after two years of one’s retirement. The DoPT in an office memorandum dated April 2, 2012 said ACR (Annual Confidential Reports) /APAR dossier would be handed over to a retired officer if a written request is filed.

The ACRs are kept in store rooms for five years even after an officer retires...

CAG’s report card on implementation of social schemes may impact collector’s ACR

AIMING at becoming a Tendulkar or Dhoni by scoring 10 out of 10? The annual confidential report (ACR) of an IAS officer may now depend on administrative skills of an officer in implementing Centrally-sponsored social sector programmes, a report by a national daily newspaper said.

According to a report by The Times of India, the large-scale leakages in many of the social sector schemes are forcing the Manmohan Singh government to ask its official auditor, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), to take the district as a unit to evaluate how it has performed while implementing several developmental programmes funded by the Centre. Till now, CAG had been auditing a particular scheme or evaluating the state’s performance as a whole.

“The ACRs of an administrator in the district and those coordinating and monitoring the schemes at the Centre will take into account the CAG review and the briefing made to the chief secretary in a state,” the newspaper report says. The report has quoted CAG Vinod Rai as saying that the skills of an administrator would be one of the factors in evaluating his performance in future.

The CAG has started district-specific audits in Himachal Pradesh (HP), Meghalaya and Uttarakhand.

Also Read

Can every IAS, IPS or IFS be a Tendulkar? Govt says 'no'

Action and Appointments

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved the extension of tenure of Dr Pronab Sen as Chief Statistician of India, with concurrent charge as secretary, ministry of statistics and programme implementation for a period of two months beyond May 20, 2010 or till the appointment of his successor, whichever is earlier.

Babus in Demand

a) Applications are invited for the post of chairman of Rubber Board at Kottayam, Kerala in the rank of a joint secretary.

For details, click DoPT’s WIRELESS MESSAGE, dated May 18, 2010.

b) Applications are invited for the post of secretary, Damodar Valley Corporation, Kolkata under the ministry of power at the level of a joint secretary.

For details, click the DoPT’s WIRELESS MESSAGE, dated May 24, 2010.

Geneva-based WTO job on offer for deputy secretary level Indian bureaucrat

YET another high profile global post is on offer for Indian bureaucrats to apply. The DoPT (department of personnel and training) has come out with a circular asking for nomination from officers at the rank of deputy secretary or director to fill up the post of First Secretary (Legal) in Permanent Mission of lndia (PMI), WTO, Geneva. This is the second such major hunt for suitable officers to be posted at WTO's headquarters in Geneva. About four months ago, another hunt for candidates for the post of Counsellor (Services) in the WTO's Permanent Mission of India (PMI), began for a vacancy that was expected to arise on November 21, 2009. The detailed eligibility of the current post of First Secretary (Legal) in Permanent Mission of lndia (PMI), WTO, Geneva are as follows: a) Officers of the rank of deputy secretary/director of Government of lndia or equivalent level are eligible for the post b) Mandatory Requirements i) Officers having 2 years cumulative work experience in commerce, trade and industry ii) Should be familiar with the functioning of the WTO and have knowledge of the legal agreements iii) Should have a degree in Law (LLB) c) Desirable Requirements i) Should have experience in the trade policy division of the department of commerce ii) Should have the ability to handle international negotiations d) It is further required that i) The officer must have worked for at least 2 years at the Centre under the Central Staffing Scheme ii) Should have at least "Very Good" service record iii) Should not be over 54 years of age on the date of occurrence of vacancy iv) The officer should not have been nominated for foreign training or should not be on training or foreign assignment currently v) Should not be on study leave or long leave The names of willing and eligible officers who can be spared by the state government/ministries/departments may be forwarded to this Department along with cadre clearance, vigilance clearance, detailed bio-data and certified ACR grading of the last five years. For officers working in the state government, it may also be ensured that the "Cooling Off", after a previous stint on deputation, if any, is complete and the officer is eligible to be appointed on Central Deputation as per rules. e) Last date of application: 15th December, 2009. Significantly, present current cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar, served as Ambassador to the WTO in the Permanent Mission of India (PMI), Geneva. He joined in December 2001 succeeding S Narayanan. Actual copy of DoPT CIRCULAR dated November 16, 2009 Read about the earlier vacancy: A high profile post on offer for WTO, Geneva (August 1, 2009) The actual copy of Haryana chief secretary's list of eligible officers for First Secretary's post at PMI, WTO, Geneva Action & Appointments Following four Judges have been appointed as Supreme Court Judges. In order of seniority, they are: i) Justice Ananga Kumar Patnaik, Chief Justice, Madhya Pradesh High Court ii) Justice Tirath Singh Thakur, Chief Justice, Punjab & Haryana High Court, iii) Justice Kalavamkodath Sivasankara Panicker Radhakrishnan, Chief Justice, Gujarat High Court iv) Justice Surinder Singh Nijjar, Chief Justice, Calcutta High Court

Can every IAS, IPS or IFS be MS Dhoni or Sachin Tendulkar? Government says NO

THE government has reiterated that officers should not be given 10 out of 10 in a routine manner by the reporting or reviewing authorities, and this should be restricted to 20% of the officers under their supervision, and any grading of more than 8 for each attribute must be justified by giving reasons in writing in a separate sheet. Numerical gradings are done in a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 refers to the lowest grade and 10 to the highest. It has come to notice that many officers have secured full marks in the outcome of Performance Appraisal Report (PAR) introduced for IAS, IPS and IFS so far, which may later be applicable to other civil servants too. The original idea of introducing the numerical system by replacing the age-old Annual Confidential Reports (ACR) was to locate the outstanding officers and help them securing empanelment and promotions faster than the others. But that must be a limited lot as not every officer can be MS Dhoni or Sachin Tendulkar! The government in a recent order has further reiterated its instruction issued on 3rd December, 2008 which says that any grading of more than 8 for each attribute must be justified by giving reasons in writing in a separate sheet. The guidelines for Reporting Authorities also said that the members of the Service graded between 8 and 10 will be rated as ‘outstanding’ and will be given a score of 9 for the purpose of calculating average scores for empanelment/promotion. Similarly, members of the service graded between 6 and short of 8 will be rated as ‘very good’ and will be given a score of 7.

Babu Blogger’s Take: All these are perfect! But what’s about officers who take more initiatives and hence are likely to make more mistakes vis-à-vis others who are laggards so far as new initiatives are concerned. More you work, more controversial you could be! So, it’s a big challenge for the administrative reformers to give special incentives to those who work hard and initiate new projects.

MHA officials in jitters as P Chidambaram writes long comments on performance appraisal reports

SENIOR home ministry officials have already been jittery over home minister P Chidambaram's habit of writing long comments on annual performance appraisal reports (PAR) of senior officials. Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) officials have learnt from their colleagues in finance ministry, where Mr Chidambaram spent most of the time during the last government’s tenure, that he won’t hesitate to write even negative comments overruling the marks given by an officer’s immediate senior, BoI (Babus of India) has learnt. Most other ministers normally don’t add any extra line, but just write the customary word “accepted”. Mr Chidamabaram’s habit of writing long observations on appraisal forms of senior officials above the joint secretary level, may however increase productivity among top bureaucrats. In fact, Performance Appraisal Report (PAR) is the new format of apprising an official’s character, capability and other attributes in place of Annual Confidential Report (ACR). Whereas PAR, which is based on marks system replacing the earlier grading method of ACR, is at present mandatory for IAS, IPS and Indian Forest Service (IFS) officials. The PAR method, which is indispensable for an official’s promotions in future, is likely to be introduced for other Group A civil servants as well. If sources in finance ministry are to be believed, Mr Chidamabarm at times even added an extra page to write his “endless” comments. In fact, annual performance appraisal report is finally disclosed to the concerned officials under The All India Services (Performance Appraisal Report) Rules, 2007. Despite his unpopularity among officials and journalists, Mr Chidambaram is considered to be a tough administrator and one of the most performing ministers in Dr Manmohan Singh’s cabinet.