Modi govt to crack whip on non-performing bureaucrats

New Delhi: In a bid to identify non-performers and increase accountability of its employees, the Centre has initiated an exercise to examine in detail service records of 67,000, including 25,000 belong to Group A services like IAS, IPS and IRS. The exercise is aimed at helping improve the over all governance system and service delivery.

The government is also planning to initiate action against those officials found to be violating the service rules and code of conduct formulated for them. The department of personnel and training (DoPT) has initiated a major exercise to examine service records of 67,000 employees to identify the non-performers while providing a “favourable work environment” to those who are performing well. According to the latest DoPT data, there are as many as 48.85 lakh government employees.

Ever since the Modi government assumed office, the DoPT has on more occasion than one asserted that focus had to be on timely delivery and efficiency while corruption would not be tolerated, inviting stringent disciplinary action. The DoPT has changed its performance monitoring mechanism making it more transparent and objective, while at the same time it granted several service benefits to Central employees like Leave Travel Concession and transfer policy.

The performance review and annual reports of employees is important as their future empanelment and promotions depend on these. There has been a growing view in the Modi regime that more importance should be given to performance and competence rather than seniority as is normally the case in bureaucracy.

In the past one year, 129 government employees, which includes IAS and IPS officers, have been granted compulsory retirement on account of poor performance. According to the existing norms, the DoPT conducts a performance assessment of government officials twice during their service tenure.

While the first one is done after 15 years for joining the service, the second one is carried out after 25 years. However, the concerned heads of department where the official is posted prepares the Annual Confidential Report (ACR) which is taken into consideration during promotion, transfer and empanelment.