*Timelines defined for completion of process by March 31
Reports to be disclosed to KAS officers before finalization
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Jan 5: To ensure more transparency in the process of writing Annual Performance Reports (APRs) of the officers of Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service commonly known as KAS, the Government has inserted new provisions in the procedure and defined different timelines so that entire exercise is completed by March 31st every year.
The new provisions have been incorporated on the instructions of the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha consequent upon the implementation of Smart Performance Appraisal Report Recording Online Window (SPARROW) for writing up of Annual Performance Report for the members of Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service and in partial modification of relevant Government orders of 2001 and 2019.
Under Chapters VII and VIII of the procedure for writing up, custody and maintenance of the APRs defined vide Government Order No.1311-GAD dated November 9, 2001, there was provision for making representation by the officers only in case of adverse entries in the Annual Performance Report.
“The officer to whom an adverse entry is communicated may represent to the Accepting Authority against it within six weeks and the Accepting Authority/Administrative Department on receipt of representation against the adverse remarks shall obtain the remarks of the Initiating/Reviewing Authority (author of the adverse remarks) and all such representations shall, as far as possible, be decided within three months from the date of submission of the representations”, read Chapter VIII.
Notwithstanding these instructions, the Government has inserted new provisions which shall be applicable to the members of Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service. The new provisions permit disclosure of Annual Performance Report (APR) to the officer reported upon and procedure for representation to the Referral Board.
As per the new provisions, the full Annual Performance Report (APR) including the overall grade and assessment of integrity shall be disclosed to the officer reported upon after finalization by the Accepting Authority to enable the officer to represent his case.
The officer reported upon will have the option to give his comments on the Annual Performance Report in writing to the Accepting Authority within 15 days of the receipt of the Annual Performance Report and the comments shall be restricted to the specific factual observations contained in the APR leading to the assessment of the officer in terms of attributes, work output and competency.
Thereafter, the Accepting Authority within 15 days forward the same to the Reviewing and the Initiating Authority and call for their views on the comments and Initiating Authority within 15 days forward his own views on the comments to the Reviewing Authority failing it shall be presumed that he has no views thereon.
The Accepting Authority will consider the comments of the officer reported upon, the views of the Initiating Authority and the Reviewing Authority and after due consideration may accept them and modify the APR accordingly. Thereafter, the decision and final grading will be communicated to the officer reported upon within 15 days of receipt of the views of the Reviewing Authority.
In case the officer reported upon chooses to represent against the final assessment conveyed to him according to this procedure, he may represent his case through General Administration Department for a decision by the Referral Board, within one month, provided that such representation shall be confined to errors of facts.
“In case an entry or assessment is upgraded or down-graded, reasons for the same shall be recorded in the Annual Performance Report and the entire APR including the overall grade will thereafter be communicated to the officer reported upon which shall conclude the process of assessment and no further representation of any kind shall be entertained thereafter”, read the new provisions.
The Referral Board for the Junior Scale KAS officers will be headed by Administrative Secretary of the General Administration Department while as Chief Secretary will head the Referral Board for Time Scale and above officers.
Even timelines for disclosure of APRs, representation, forwarding of the representation to the competent authority, disposal of the representation by the competent authority and communication of the decision of the competent authority to officer reported upon have been fixed by the Government.
The process will begin with the disclosure of APRs to the officer reported upon by August 31 of the year and will culminate on March 31 every year when APR will be finally taken on record.
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