The Hindu Business Line : Performance appraisal revamped

The Central Government has, at long last, after nearly 60 years of cogitation, bitten the bullet. It has made March 14 a red letter day for members of the Indian Administrative, Police and Forest Services by publishing the All India Services (Performance Appraisal Report) Rules running into 61 pages. It is an exhaustive document which seeks to make the process of appraising their performance as scientific, transparent, comprehensive and objective as possible and take into account all the salient aspects of this complex and delicate exercise.

It is just as well and not a day too soon. For, the fair name and, indeed, the entire career prospects of officers belonging to these Services are bound up with the manner in which this most vital and sensitive duty is discharged by those under whom they work. There is also no denying that in the way the system has worked so far, there was room for injecting subjective, whimsical or extraneous considerations into the evaluation of individual officials, increasing the chances of injustice being done to the good and able.

Damocles' swords

This is because most supervising officers who do not have the confidence to bring up and correct their subordinates face to face waited in ambush, so to speak, for the so-called annual confidential reports (ACRs) to vent their spleen. There is, of course, a requirement that adverse remarks should be communicated to the officer affected so as to give him an opportunity to make a representation, but for want of a precise stipulation pinning the reporting, reviewing and accepting authorities to any criteria of accountability, such representations provide no real remedy. In short, the ACRs were looked upon as Damocles' swords and not as a means of getting the best out of incumbents in various Services. Scope for such abuses will be minimal under the new Rules.

The Rules have done well in calling upon the supervising officers to remember that the performance appraisal report is meant to provide "the basic and vital inputs for further development of an officer" and be "used as a tool for career planning and training, rather than a mere judgmental exercise.... The objective is to develop an officer so that he/she realises his/her true potential. It is not meant to be a faultfinding process but a developmental tool."

They are further enjoined to fill up the form with a high sense of responsibility, and "due care and attention and after devoting adequate time." They have also been asked not to wait for a whole year to record their observations about the performance of their subordinates, but meet them during the course of the year at regular intervals to review the performance and take corrective steps. The Rules make it obligatory for the appraisal reports to be shown to the officers reported upon, and establish an independent Referral Board for considering their representations. They have also indicated the weights to be given for each of the entries, and the modality of arriving at an overall grade on a scale of 1-10. These very salutary directives are buttressed by requiring officers above the age of 40 to undergo an annual medical check-up.

One only wishes that, to weed out passengers, the Rules had, in addition, as in the case of Defence Forces, laid down the condition that every member of the three Services should be put through a fresh test every five years to judge his suitability to continue in service, and in the event of his failure to reach a given rank within a particular period is made to put in his papers.

B. S. RAGHAVAN

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