In a first, IAS officers now allowed to write their appraisal online

Launch of online appraisal at the PMO

WHAT could be described as a major step forward in correct appraisal of India’s top officers, the government on Thursday introduced online filing of Performance Appraisal Report (PAR), for IAS officers from the current assessment year, 2013-14. As the software developed by government-owned National Informatics Centre (NIC) was formally launched in New Delhi by minister of state in PMO V Narayanasamy in New Delhi, it heralded a…

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...

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.