NEW DELHI: Concerned over the inordinate delay in filling up top posts in ministries and Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC), headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has directed inclusion of a specific provision in the recruitment rules to ensure that top positions do not remain vacant for long time. The NDA Government has been drawing flak from the Opposition for keeping top posts in the ministries and public enterprises vacant .
The Centre, in its missive to all the cadre controlling authorities on Monday, directed them to include a specific provision related to Annual Performance Assessment Report (APAR) to ease the selection process.
“If an APAR for a financial year is not recorded by December 31 of the year in which the financial year ended, no remarks may be recorded thereafter and the officer may be assessed on the basis of the overall record and self assessment for the year, if he has submitted his self assessment in time,” the letter said.
The ACC, while considering a proposal for the appointment of CMD in a PSU, observed that non-adherence to the stipulated time frame in finalising APARs is a recurrent problem in all sectors of the government. It also observed that sometimes assessees do not submit their self appraisals in time and sometimes the delay is due to reporting authorities not adhering to the time frame. Often cases of undated appraisals are noticed and possibility of back dating can also not be ruled out. The government also directed the cadre controlling authorities to tweak the online application SPARROW for filing APAR. The ACC has directed the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) to introduce online submission for APAR and furnish the action-taken report (ATR) urgently.