Govt to monitor 'integrity' of Central Government Employees

Move to rate staffers on this count creates flutter in bureacracy 

The "integrity"of central government employees will now be under watch.

A confidential circular by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has asked all officers of the rank of joint secretaries and above to rate the integrity of their subordinates.

The move forms part of reforms and making bureaucracy more accountable and functional. The intergrity report will be part of the annual confidential appraisal reports (ACARs).

The ACAR is designed to adjudge the performance of government servants every year in the areas of work, conduct, character and capabilities.

The ratings will be "beyond doubt, doubtful, most doubtful".

The circular has created a flutter within bureaucracy. Many officials told dna that it has not defined the integrity.

It has also asked supervisory officers to maintain a confidential diary to note the integrity and actions of subordinate staff, and consult this diary when filing the integrity column in the ACARs.

The filing of ACARs, which starts on March 31, has to be completed by May 23.

"Officers have been asked to make a note in the diary about instances that raise suspicion about the integrity of a subordinate and the action taken to verify the truth," said a senior central government official.

It further says that senior officers till the rank of secretaries should also note the action taken by supervisors while making confidential departmental inquiries or referring the matter to the police for further action.

Though a clause of integrity was incorporated in the ACAR some years back, reporting officers were not making a clear and categorical noting.

Now, with clear classification in the columns, they will have to report and rate the integrity of staff, said a DoPT official.

Meanwhile, Union minister of state in-charge of DoPT Dr Jitendra Singh said that the government will soon devise an institutional mechanism for the welfare and utilisation of the vast resource pool of pensioners.

At present, there are more pensioners than serving employees, he said. Retired employees need to engage themselves and contribute to government initiatives like educating people to use the accounts opened under Jan Dhan Yojana, Swachh Bharat Swachh Vidyalaya and Kaushal Vikas Yojana etc as per their interests, he suggested.