Self Appraisal Report for the Officers of WBA&AS cadre

Government of West Bengal
Finance Department
Audit Branch

No. 3939-F Kolkata, the 17th May, 2007

Sub: Introduction of Self Appraisal Report in place of Annual confidential Report for the Officers belonging to the cadre of West Bengal Audit & Accounts Service on and from 2007-2008 – General instructions regarding, writing and communication of Self Performance Appraisal.

MEMORANDUM

On the basis of recommendation of the consultative Committee constituted for State services, the Government has decided to introduce ‘Self Appraisal Report’ uniformly for the officers of all constituted state services, like WBCS(Exe.) officers. This Department after thorough examination in the matter has since decided to Introduce the same and has drawn up a format of ‘Self Appraisal Report’ for the officers belonging to the cadre of West Bengal Audit & Accounts service of the state Govt. in lieu of earlier Annual confidential Report. This revised confidential Reports with Self-Appraisal of performance will come into effect from the financial year 2007-2008 and the same is being circulated to all the Administrative Departments and District Magistrates etc. for taking appropriate steps to initiate the confidential Reports as aforesaid.

Consequent upon introduction of performance appraisal through confidential Reports in respect of the WBA&AS officers, this Department has been under contemplation of issuance of self-contained guidelines in the matter of writing and transmission of Confidential Reports in supersession of the earlier guidelines issued by this Department from time to time. After careful consideration/ the following guidelines are being issued for necessary compliance hereinafter:-

1. a) Self Appraisal Reports shall come into effect from 1st of April, 2007, i. e., from financial year 2007-2008 and shall be written separately for the every year, in triplicate, after ending on 31st March of the following year.

b) The Officer Reported upon shall fill in the personal data in Part-I & Part-II of the specified format with his/her full signature and the post(s) held by him/her during the period under report and submit the Report to the Reporting Officer within one month of the close of the financial year, i.e., by the 30th April.

c) The Govt. has specified the designation of the Reporting Officer, Reviewing officer (i.e. the countersigning officer)/ Accepting Authority in respect of all the officers Reported Upon as per enclosed schedule.

d) The Reporting Officer shall record his views in Part-III of the specified format and transmit the same to the Reviewing Officer by the 30th June next, preserving an office copy at his end.

e) After recording comments in part-IV, the Reviewing officer shall transmit the confidential Reports to the next higher authority, i.e. the Accepting officer by 31st July next, in case, where the Reviewing officer is also the Accepting Officer, the report shall be sent to Finance Deptt. by the 31st July next, in case of WBA&AS officers, the principal Secretary will be invariably the Accepting officer.

f) The Finance Department shall be the custodian of the Confidential Reports and shall review the position from time to time so as to procure all confidential Reports by the 31st August next.

g) In place the existing grading system with the introduction of Self Appraisal Report, the grading in respect of WBA&AS officers are ‘outstanding’, ‘Very Good’, ‘Good’, ‘Average’ and ‘Below Average’.

2. a) Within a Financial Year a confidential Report may be drawn for fractional period when either the Reporting officer or the Officer Reported upon relinquishes the charge of the post, in such cases the officer Reported upon shall fill in the data & submit the Report, to the Reporting officer at the time of relinquishment of the charge of the post or immediately thereafter.

b) When more than one confidential Reports are drawn on an officer during the course of a financial year, each of the reports shall indicate the period to which it pertains.

c) The Reporting officer and the countersigning officer, as the case may be shall draw, countersign the confidential Reports of an officer Reported upon, if he/ she has observed the performance of the officer concerned for at least three months of a year.

In case, the Officer(s) at any or the above levels has not observed the performance of an officer Reported upon for at least three months during a year, the process shall start at the next higher level. In the event, the above stipulation is not fulfilled a note to that effect shall be endorsed with the Annual Confidential Report before passing it on to the next authority.

d) However, when the Confidential Reports of any officer is found to have not been initiated/countersigned for particular year(s) and the then officers mentioned as authorities are not available at the present place the existing officers will initiate/countersign the confidential Report of the concerned officer on the basis of the performance and other available records.

e) An officer shall not be competent to report or countersign the confidential Reports of an officer Reported upon after one month of the retirement from Govt. service or, in other cases, demission of office.

f) If the confidential Reports of any officer(s) for some past year(s) are not available either in the Finance Deptt. or in the office where he/they worked, the Finance Deptt. will call for performance report of the concerned officer(s) from the existing authorities in order to enable the Joint secretary/ special Secretary (Group-‘T’) to initiate the Annual confidential Report(s) of such officer(s) and place before the secretary/ pr. Secretary/ Finance Deptt. for countersignature.

g) Name of the Officer Reported upon in the confidential Reports is often shown in abbreviated form instead of showing the full name, in such cases, it becomes difficult to identify the officer and to place the confidential Report in the appropriate folder, resulting in mixing up with confidential Reports of other officers having the same abbreviated name. Therefore/ the full name alongwith designation of the officer reported upon must be mentioned clearly in the confidential Reports.

3. INTEGRITY

The following instructions are issued in regard to filling the column on “integrity” :

a) supervisory officers should maintain a confidential diary in which instances creating suspicion about the integrity of an Officer reported upon should be noted from time to time and the actions to verify the truth of such suspicions should be taken expeditiously by making confidential enquiries departmentally or by referring the matter to the vigilance commission. At the time of recording the confidential Report, this diary should be consulted and the material in it to be utilised for filling in the column on “integrity”.

b) if some adverse material is recorded in the column specified for “integrity” then the Confidential Report should accompany evidence of the adverse comments.

c) The column for “integrity” should not be filled up by the remarks “Average” or “Below Average” since they are of ambiguous nature and said column also should not be left blank.

4. COMMUNICATION OF ADVERSE/CRITICAL REMARKS:

a) Any remark in the confidential Report of an officer Reported upon, which in the opinion of the Government is adverse or critical or “Below Average” should be communicated to the officer in writing by the Government within three months of receipt of the confidential Report and a note to this effect should be recorded in the confidential Report files.

b) An officer may represent to the Government against the adverse remarks so communicated within three months of the date of its receipt by him/her or within such other extended date as the Government may allow.

c) The Government after consulting the Reporting officer or the Reviewing officer as may be necessary consider the representation and pass order on it as early as possible, either;

i) Rejecting the representation; or ii) Toning down or substituting the remarks; or iii) Expunging the remarks.

The order passed by the Govt. shall be final and the officer should be suitably informed. The necessary change in the S. A. R. should be effected under attestation by the proper authority.

d) A remark recorded by an officer in the confidential Report should prevail unless it is contradicted by any of the Higher Authorities to whom it is required to be submitted or modified under para 4(c).

5. Incidentally, in terms of Finance Department Memo No. 9135-F dt. 10-09-2002, the WBA&AS Officers will also additionally have to score 70% on attendance to become eligible for appointment in higher pay scales, both functional and non-functional and marking on attendance in their cases shall be as per the format prescribed in Finance Department’s aforesaid Memorandum dated 10-09-2002. Assessment of the WBA&AS officers upto 2003-2007 shall, however, be drawn up in the previous format. The appraisal of attendance of the officer Reported up&n is being incorporated in the part- ‘VI’ of this Report.

6. These instructions are brought to the notice of all the Administrative Departments including all Divisional commissioners and District Magistrates for proper circulation, to all Heads of Directorate, Regional officers and public sector undertakings as well as Sub-Divisional officers for compliance and guideline.

Sd/- P.K. Guha Roy
OSD & e.o. Special Secretary
Government of West Bengal
Finance Department

No. 3939-F dated 17.05.2007, Source