DOPT initiated the process to Change the system of APAR

The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has finally kicked in a process to change the Performance Appraisal (PAR) system for bureaucrats, asking for the views of other ministries on an improved system which borrows heavily from the model followed in Singapore.

As per a DoPT note circulated to other ministries, the new system will make the annual appraisal process more objective in nature than the numerical rating system followed at present. Also, any superior giving an “outstanding” ranking to a junior will have to cite a “specific achievement” to justify the ranking, as per the note.

The new system will also follow the model of the Singapore Civil Service that links the pace of promotions to an estimation of the highest level of work an offence can competently handle before his retirement and considers the official’s intellectual qualities, result orientation and leadership qualities for appraisal. DoPT will also convert the appraisal process into an online filing system for IAS officers which will be duly explained to all state governments in an upcoming meeting on September 27.

This follows after concerns were raised at the highest quarters about the current appraisal system in government where nearly every official gets an outstanding raking from his supervisor without even a face-to-face meeting with the appraiser.

Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth, at the Civil Services Day function earlier this April, had conceded that the Performance Appraisal Report system that was last revised in 2007 needed a major change as nearly every government servant was getting a 9 or 10 ranking in the annual appraisals. “If everyone is outstanding, no one is,” Seth had said.