Dr. Jitendra Singh unveils six initiatives of DoPT to mark Good Governance Day

Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions

25-December-2016 12:44 IST

Dr. Jitendra Singh unveils six initiatives of DoPT to mark Good Governance Day

The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh presided over the ‘Good Governance Day’ function, here today. He launched six major initiatives of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions on the occasion of Good Governance Day.

The initiatives are: Recruitment Rules Formation, Amendment Monitoring System (RRFAMS), Immovable Property Return through Property Related Information System (PRISM), announcement of E-Service Book, Mandatory online filing of APAR by all AIS and Central Group ‘A’ Service Officers, EO App on iPhone Operating System (iOS) and launching of redesigned website of DoPT.

Main features of the new initiatives are as follows:

1) Revamped Website of DoPT

• National Informatics Centre (NIC) had prepared ‘Guidelines for Indian Government Websites’ (GIGW) with a view to make government websites citizen centric and user friendly which has been circulated by the Department of AR & PG to all Government Ministries / Departments for adoption.
• The Cabinet Secretary to the Government of India had written to all the Secretaries in this regard and advised NIC to extend necessary technology support to facilitate the departments in revising, redesigning their websites to make them compliant to Guidelines for Indian Government websites to make them usable, citizen centric and universally accessible.
• CMF is a Content Management Framework developed by NIC, MeitY and is aligned to the mandate of PMO to standardize all the websites of Government of India under the Digital India Programme.
• This includes standardization of Content Architecture, User Interface Design and layout and along with certain important key features such as accessibility, responsive design etc., in order to simplify the information dissemination and access by common citizens even through hand held devices (i.e. mobiles, tablets etc) to the various government services.
• As per information available the websites of 23 Ministries / Departments have been mitigated using CMF and the websites of remaining departments are in pipeline.
• The revamped website of DoPT is bilingual and compliant with the ‘Guidelines for Indian Government Website (GIGW).

2) RRFAMS

• The Recruitment Rules (RRs) for various Central Government civilian posts in the category of Group A and Group B are framed with the approval of DoPT, UPSC and Ministry of Law. The RRs are initiated by the Ministries where the posts are located and forwarded to DoPT for approval. After the Rules are approved by DoPT, the Concerned Ministry/Department consults UPSC in respect of those posts which are not exempted from such consultation. This is followed by vetting of the draft notification by the Legislative Department. Thereafter the RRs are sent to the Government Press for publishing in the Gazette. This procedure is followed for framing new RRs as well as for amendment of existing RRS.
• For consultation with DOPT, an electronic system, namely, Recruitment Rules Framing, Amendment and Monitoring System (RRFAMS) was introduced in 2009. Under this system, Recruitment Rules are examined and frozen by DoPT. The Ministries have to take printout and submit proposals on physical files. Thereafter, approval of the RRs are conveyed on physical file. Thus the existing system involves lot of paper work and involves two stages of consultation with DOPT.
• In keeping with the objective of ‘Digital India’, a new RRFAMS has been developed. The new RRFAMS enables fully computerised Online examination of proposal relating to framing and amendment of RRs by DOPT. The Ministries/Departments can submit their proposals in the online mode. The remarks/observations/approvals of DOPT will be conveyed through the system in the online mode. This is a step towards Paperless Office. The benefits of the new system are many, to mention a few, it will lead to reduction in time required for approval of proposals simplifying the procedure for framing and amendment of RRs and keep an electronic trail of the examination/comments made by various functionaries.
• In the coming year, this system will be further expanded for electronic transmission and online consultation/approval of RRs by UPSC/Legislative Department and electronic transmission to the Government Press for notification.
• The new RRFAMS, besides increasing the speed of processing will also help in creation of an electronic library of Recruitment Rules.

3) e-Service book and HRMS

• Service book is the most vital document of govt. employees and all data related with service of employees are recorded in the service book e.g. joining of employee, their promotion, transfer, salary, leave etc.
• Through e-Service Book platform all service related matters affecting the service of employee will be automated. Simultaneously we will take necessary steps for implementation in other ministries and departments of Governments of India considering specific requirement of a particular ministry/department.
• In case of transfer of an employee from one office to other, Service book will be transferred online and all data related with employee will be instantly available to new organisation.
• The roll out of e-Service Book is a vital step towards establishing a fully automated Human Resource Management System (HRMS) with an employee portal covering all employees of Government of India so that all processes of personnel management from “hiring to retiring” on digital platform dispensing the manual system of handling personnel management.

4) Mandatory online filing of APAR by officers of AIS and Group A Civil Services

• As a measure towards good governance, Department of Personnel & Training has made online filing of Performance Appraisal Reports (PAR) mandatory in respect of IAS officers in Smart Performance Appraisal Report Recording Online Window (SPARROW), a software developed for this purpose, from the assessment year 2014-15.
• Instructions have also been issued to the Cadre Controlling Authorities of other All India Services and all organised Gr. A Services such as the Indian Police Service, Indian Forest Service, Indian Revenue Services and various Railway Services, etc. to introduce the system of online filing of APARs for their respective Services with effect from the assessment year 2015-16. Besides IAS, Indian Police Service and Indian Forest Service have introduced online filing of Annual Performance Appraisal Reports (APARs). Other Central Group “A” services are in process of making online filing of APARs mandatory.
• Further, similar instructions have also been issued to the Department of Public Enterprises and the Department of Financial Services with respect to Central Public Sector Enterprises and Public Sector Banks/Financial Institutions/Public Sector Insurance Companies respectively. Regular monitoring of the progress in this regard is also being done by DoPT.
• Online filing of APARs is crucial for good governance as it eliminates the possibility of any manipulation in the physical forms and ensures timely submission and finalisation of APARs which are invaluable tools for assessing the performance of officers with a view to chalk out their career progression and training needs. Further, availability of APARs online makes them readily accessible to the officers concerned thereby making the system transparent and immune to inefficiencies associated with physical transit of APARs.

5) Online Filing of Immovable Property Return to be effective from 1.1.2017

• The Government has decided to introduce online filing of Immovable Property Returns (IPRs) by IAS officers for the year 2015-16 as on 1.1.2017 for which the National Informatics Commission (NIC) has developed a module which has been made available on Smart Performance Appraisal Report Recording Online Window (SPARROW) platform, an online portal for filing of Performance Appraisal Report. The software was inaugurated by Hon’ble MOS (PP) on 25.12.2016 as part of the Good Governance Day celebration. The ceremony was attended by senior Government officials including Secretary (Personnel), Establishment Officer & Additional Secretary and other officers of DoPT. For filing IPR online, the officer will have the option to either upload hard copy of the return in the module or to digitally sign the return available on module through Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) or eSign application. In order to facilitate filing of return, a ‘User Manual-IPR’ has been provided on the Home Page of SPARROW.
• The portal would become operational w.e.f. 01.01.2017. The portal could be accessed by the serving IAS officers through their NIC email IDs and passwords, already provided to them for online filing of PARs in SPARROW.
• The introduction of online filing of IPRs would be able to address issues like – manual IPRs getting lost in transition, IPRs though submitted by the officer but not uploaded by the State Governments, IPRs without date getting uploaded in the system, ante- dating of IPS. This is another step towards transparency and probity in governance. It will be convenient for the officers, as instead of sending it in hard copies they would have the option to upload it in the system or to file it online. This system would also help DoPT and State Governments in easy monitoring for ensuring that all officers file their property return in time. It would also make the entire process hassle free as the hard copies would be dispensed with thereby resulting in saving of man-hours in handling the papers.

6) Launch of iOS version of Employees Online App

• Employees Online App (EO App) iOS version developed by e-Office & NIC-DoPT team has been launched today. It may be noted that earlier android version of the same application was launched on 28/10/2016.
• EO App provides the information like Sr. Officers Appointment & Posting orders approved by ACC, What is New of D/o Personnel & Training website, Holiday list, Directory Listing of all Min/ Departments (contact us info) on real time basis for media persons, officers and all stake holders.
• IAS and other Group A central services personnel can login and see their individual information like, ER (Employee Record) sheet, APAR (Annual Performance Appraisal Report), IPR (Immovable Property Return) and information like offer list, Officers at centre, Training Application status, domestic, foreign training details, Civil list (IAS), vacancy circulars, OMs & Orders etc. The application has feature of “push notification” i.e. users of the application will get alert on the app whenever there is a new notification.
• The android version that was launched on 28/10/2016 is already being widely used by the officers and media persons and other stakeholders. With launch of the iOS version, now, Apple phone users on iOS platform will be able to download the application from the Apple Store, where it is likely to be available very soon, using DoPT as the keyword. The launch of iOS version is going to further enhance the user base of the application.

DoPT has taken many concrete steps for bringing citizen centricity to the core of all its delivery mechanisms. National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG), an organisation with DoPT, is providing necessary direction, guidance and capacity building inputs on Governance and management issues to the Central and State Government and their organisations.

Good Governance Day is being observed on December 25 since the year 2014, coinciding with the birthday of former Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

During the launch of the six initiatives of the DoPT and observance of Good Governance Day, Senior Officers of the DoPT were also present including Shri B.P. Sharma, Secretary (Personnel), Shri C. Vishwanath, Secretary, DAR&PG and Pensions, Shri Rajiv Kumar, EO & AS and other senior officers were present on the occasion.

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Modernization of Service Book

Government of India
Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions
Department of Personnel & Training

New Delhi. 5th April. 2016

Subject: Modernization of Service Book

The undersigned is directed to state that there is a proposal to modernize the Service Book to make it user friendly. The proposed format of the Service Book is annexed herewith.

2. All Ministries/ Departments are requested to offer the comments, if any, within 15 days of this 0M.

Encl: As above

(Mukul Ratra)
Director

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The Central Government had issued the following orders from time to time regarding aading the Aadhaar number in Service Reocords of Central Government Employees.

The Honourable Supreme Court of India had already clarified that Aadhaar numbers cannot be made compulsory for Indian citizens. But the Centre had argued that Aadhaar numbers are necessary for its welfare schemes. The case is pending in the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, without declaring that Aadhaar numbers are compulsory for all, the central government has made it compulsory for enjoying the various benefit schemes that are being offered. This has led to a debate if the centre is indirectly twisting the arms of the citizens to obtain the Aadhaar number.

In the meantime, an order was issued by the finance minister of the Delhi state government on Tuesday. It said that in order to speed up the pension distribution and salary due payments, certain new clauses have been added to Form 5. Since the order issued in this regard by the Ministry of Labour Welfare and Training is applicable to the employees of all the state and union territory governments, the employees of Delhi state government too are bound by it. Until now, the pensions for the employees of Delhi state government were given at the Accounts Auditor’s office of the Ministry of Finance. It has now been made compulsory for all the Delhi state government employees to submit their Aadhaar numbers. Hence, orders have been issued to all the employees to add their Aadhaar numbers to their Service Records.

The Department of Exchequer of the Ministry of Finance had issued an order on June 2, in which, just stopping short of saying that Aadhaar card is compulsory for all, it laid emphasis on possessing the Aadhaar number. That is, as part of the Digital India plan, and for the issuing of digital life certificate to government employees, the government is forced to take certain steps. In order to facilitate these, employees have to now submit their PAN Cards, Aadhaar numbers, email ID and cellphone numbers in their pension book records. A number of accounts department in various offices do not bother to confirm if the employees possess Aadhaar cards. The order says that the offices must insist that the employees present their Aadnaar number when they begin to draw their pensions.

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“Service Book is a record of every event occurring in the official life of a government servant. It has to be maintained for every government servant holding a permanent or a temporary post except for those who are not likely to be in service for more than one year or those holding non pensionable service.”

The nodal department of Central Government, Dopt has issued orders to all the departments to examine the employee’s service records each year in order to avoid delays in sanctioning the pensions on 30th September 2015.

More than 50 lakhs employees work in various departments of the Central Government. Pensions are delayed at the time of their retirement, due to administrative blunders and mix-ups. In order to avoid this, Service Book will be updated each year.

The main intention of the order is eliminating delays in processing of cases of retiring Government Servants. Rules and instructions of this department are reiterated time to time. The department of pensions and pensioners welfare have also suggested that the administrative authorities, to preclude and to cut down on delays in payment of retrial benefits to Government servants retiring of superannuation.

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Aadhaar Number Made Mandatory in Central Government Employees’ Service Books

On November 3, the DOPT issued an order regarding the adding of Aadhaar Number in the Service Books of Central Government employees. The order also contains certain important instructions in the rules and regulations regarding the Service Book.

According to Rule SR-202, every year, the Head of Office has to get signatures from all the employees affirming that their Service Books have been updated.

According to Rule SR-199, all the work-related remarks and notes of the employee have to be recorded in the Service Book. Each remark and note has to be attested by the senior officer.

According to Rule No. 32 of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972, all the employees who have completed more than 18 years of service will have to be informed of the retirement and pension benefits.

The Order adds that the Service Book must also contain information like the employee’s biodata, posting details, qualifying service, security details, HBA, CGHS, CGEGIS, LTC claims, etc.

And now, all the Ministries and Departments have been asked to add the Aadhaar Numbers of the employees to their Service Books.

Service Record book have to be created for an employee on the day he/she join duty. Each employee must be given a copy of his/her Service Book. In case of misplaced, for additional set of copy, the employee has to pay a fee of Rs.500. The Service Book must also contain important details of his/her life, like the employee’s marriage, children, death and address.

Why should Aadhaar Number be added to the Service Book?

Central Government offices in Delhi now have Biometric Attendance system. The Government has plans to implement this system all over the country. The first step in this ambitious plan is to add the Aadhaar Number to the Service Books.

Names are creating confusions ensue due to same initial, dates of birth and other such details. This could be avoided if each person is given his/her unique identification number. All the details about the employee can be easily gathered from the number alone.

In future, Aadhaar number becomes more important than a person’s name!

The latest order issued by the DOPT has demanded reports from all the departments on how far they have succeeded in implementing the previous order.

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