Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Jan 29: On the instructions of Governor N N Vohra, all the Administrative Secretaries have been directed to furnish a status report on filling up of Annual Performance Reports (APRs) of all the officers and officials under their control by February 3 of next month.
“Review the position of the filling up of the APRs as on March 31, 2014, in respect of all the officers/ officials and furnish a status report by or before February 3, 2015”, says a Government instruction telling all the Administrative Secretaries, who have also been asked to show names of the officers in respect of whom the APRs have been initiated/reviewed/accepted as well as the names of the defaulting officers, who have failed to submit the Self Assessment Reports within time.
The strict directions in this regard were issued following a review meeting relating to the writing up and custody of the APRs, taken by Governor N N Vohra on January 19.
In the meeting, the Governor took a serious note of the lackadaisical approach exhibited by the officers with regard to writing up of the APRs and issued necessary instructions. He desired to be apprised about the latest status in regard to the completion of the APRs (as on March 31, 2014), by February 5 of 2015.
Following Governor’s instructions in the meeting, the Government has also directed the Administrative Secretaries to organize training session in which all the subordinate officers are imparted trainings enabling them to get acquainted with the procedure relating to the writing of the APRs.
Besides, the Administrative Secretaries shall make all efforts for ensuring strict adherence of the prescribed timeline in respect of the completion of the APRs for the year 2014-15, said a circular, issued today by the General Administration Department.
Pertinent to mention here that every Government officer has to record his/ her self assessment for the preceding year and submit the same by April 30 to the Initiating Officer, who after filing in the appraisal column on his/ her performance and recording comments about the self assessment of the subordinate, is to submit the same on or before end of June to the Reviewing authority. After recording his/ her remarks, the Reviewing authority has to submit the APRs to the Accepting authority by July 15. The whole process has to be completed by the end of July.
However, it has been observed that these instructions are not being followed in letter and spirit. Besides, due diligence is not being shown while initiating / reviewing/ accepting the APRs, so important for deciding the cases of the officers regarding their promotion, deputation and also for disposing of the cases under Article 226 of J&K CSRs.
It has also been observed that the manner, in which the work and conduct of the officers is assessed or graded by the designated officers, makes it entirely difficult to arrive at a final assessment about the performance of the officers for the period reported upon. The lackadaisical approach exhibited in this regard act as a serious impediment in assessing suitability of the officers for their promotion and making appropriate recommendations for premature retirements.
Further, in the absence of the complete APRs, the Departmental Promotion Committees have been reported to be relying on the work and conduct certificates, issued by the Administrative Depart-ments, which is not a correct practice.
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