Central government employees of performing ministries to get incentives from 2012

Woh! Incentive Bonus Soon

ALL Central government employees may get performance-related incentives as the UPA government is set to implement Performance Related Incentive Scheme (PRIS) as was recommended by the Sixth Pay Commission. The employees will start getting the incentives from April 2012. According to The Hindu newspaper quoting unnamed government sources, the announcement in this regard would be made in a few days.

BoI (babusofindia.com) in a report dated May 10, 2010 reported how Dr Prajapati Trivedi, secretary of the performance management division under cabinet secretariat, worked out a proposal under which senior administrators like secretary or additional secretary would get a bonus of no less than 20% of their salary provided his ministry meets 100% target and saves money from non-plan expenditure. The joint secretaries and other employees in Central government would also be major beneficiaries of the proposal which has the blessings of cabinet secretary KM Chandrasekhar and understandably of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. But if the performance of a department/ministry is 70% or less, the concerned officials won’t get a penny as bonus. (Read: BoI report on incentives to officers, May 10, 2010)

According to media reports now, a Committee of Secretaries (COS) chaired by Cabinet Secretary KM Chandrasekhar approved the Performance Related Incentive Scheme (PRIS) on March 8, and details would be worked out soon. According to the proposal, all Central government employees working in performing departments (meeting over 70% targets) stand to benefit. Whereas for junior officials and employees, their own performance would determine the amount of incentives, the performance of the ministries or departments would count more in case of officers at the level of joint secretaries and above.

Currently, the performance of only 62 government departments are being judged by RFD (Results Framework Documents) system. So, it remains to be seen how the government would determine the incentives for officers of non-RFD ministries like PMO, home, defence and external affairs?

14^th April declared a Holiday

The government has decided to declare April 14 2011 (Thursday) as a closed holiday on account of the birthday of Dr BR Ambedkar for all central government offices, including industrial establishments throughout India. It is being notified in exercise of powers conferred by Section 25 of Negotiable Instruments Act 1881 (26 of 1881). 

40% of a government employee’s salary could be linked to performance; promotion to additional secretary won’t be a cakewalk

IF THE government has its way, as high as 40% of the basic salary of an Indian government employee could be linked to performance. Though Sixth Pay Commission had recommended performance-linked incentives, it could have made a difference of just one or two percentage of an employee’s salary.

Also, the government has been contemplating to make the promotion from joint secretary to additional secretary much more rigorous, a senior cabinet secretary official told the Indian edition of an US magazine.

In fact, if the new formula of performance-linked pay is adopted, an employee with a basic salary of Rs 20,000 may find his performance determining the fate of Rs 8,000 of his pay. The issue cropped up in a meeting of committee of secretaries held on February 5, 2010, but it was not clear what finally transpired in that meeting.

Significantly, Dr Prajapati Trivedi, secretary (performance management), told Forbes India (issue dated Feb 19) that linking performance with pay was taken up by a committee of secretaries. “It’s just a matter of working out details. When done, upto 40% of the basic salary could be linked to performance. Then appraisal will not only have reputational implications but also financial”, he was quoted as saying in an article titled “Ranking our Netas”.

Dr Trivedi, who had a lateral entry into the government straight from the World Bank last year, has now been working on evolving a system of mapping performance of government departments and ministries. He further told the magazine on how the government would make the process of promotion from joint secretary to additional secretary much more rigorous.

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A clarification on bureaucrats assessing ministers

The cabinet secretariat has clarified that “it is not factually correct to say that the serving officers will evaluate the performance of the ministers”, as was reported in a section of media. The assertion that the system is run by a committee on government performance is not true. The committee does not evaluate the performance of ministries or departments. It merely provides technical support to facilitate such evaluation by the ministers concerned, the clarification said. The statement has further clarified that that a minister and secretary don’t need to jointly sign the Results-Framework Document (RFD), as was reported.

CVC disposes of 468 cases in December 2009

The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) disposed of 468 cases during December 2009. The Commission advised initiations of major penalty proceedings against 70 officers. Of these, 20 were from public sector banks, 17 from ministry of railways, 11 from Northern Coalfields Ltd., 4 from Western Coalfields Ltd., 3 from MCD, 2 each from ministry of home affairs and Central Board of Excise and Customs.

Action and Appointments

a) Smt Justice Nirmal Yadav, Judge of the Punjab & Haryana High Court, has been transferred as a Judge of the Uttarakhand High Court.

b) Justice Nisar Ahmad Kakru, Judge of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court, has been appointed as Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court.

c) Birendra Prasad Verma and Dinesh Kumar Singh have been appointed as additional Judges of the Patna High Court.

d) T Mathivanan, Ardhanariswamy Arumughaswamy and Ms KBKVasuki, have been appointed as Additional Judges of the Madras High Court. 

Bengal officers look for greener pastures outside Left bastion

THE sixth Pay Commission and the current economic uncertainty might have stopped civil servants including senior IAS officers abandoning power corridors and joining the private sector, but the flee of officers particularly from the Left bastion of West Bengal has still been continuing. The difference, however, is that they don’t want to leave the government altogether, but want greener pasture somewhere outside the state. The latest case, as has been reported in a section of media, is the 1988 batch IAS and secretary of animal resources M V Rao, who has joined as the deputy director, National Institute of Rural Development, Hyderabad. Andhra Pradesh happens to be Mr Rao’s home state. He had earlier served as managing director of West Bengal Industrial Development Council (WBIDC). According to media reports, P R Baviskar too had requested the government to send him on deputation to his home state, Maharashtra. In fact, political upheavals at Singur and Nandigram and the subsequent events there made many IAS officers looking for opportunities outside the state. According to reports, industries secretary Sabyasachi Sen and municipal affairs secretary P K Pradhan have also expressed their desire to get out of the state. In fact, personal secretaries to Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, minister of state for shipping Mukul Roy and minister of state for health Dinesh Trivedi are all IAS officers of West Bengal cadre. Families of armed forces sensitized on menace of spying Regular awareness programmes are being conducted to sensitize members of Armed Forces and their families regarding the threat perception and modus operandi being adopted by the adversaries, as a number of spying cases carried out by Pakistan-based intelligence agencies were detected. During 2006 to 2009 (till now), eight such cases were registered and seven serving personnel were arrested. And nine serving personnel of the defence forces were either convicted or dismissed, defence minister A K Antony said in Lok Sabha on Monday.