By Desaraju Surya
AMARAVATI: In the late 1990s and the early 2000s, Nara Chandrababu Naidu acquired the image of a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) rather than a Chief Minister.
His thrust on Information Technology and push for a tehcnology-driven administration earned Chandrababu the sobriquet CEO.
In his latest stint as Chief Minister, Chandrababu promised to go back to his olden days (of the late 1990s).
His implication may be different but what he is set upon now clearly indicates that Chandrababu is once again falling back on the corporate-style governance.
There is actually not much love lost between Chandrababu and the state government employees yet, he is seeking to rub them on the wrong side again.
The proposed Performance Appraisal Framework (PAF) for government functionaries, which is set to be rolled out very soon, is the whip that Chandrababu is holding to crack on the employees.
For this, the government functionaries will be classified into ‘executive’ and ‘non-executive’ categories.
From attendance to their level of intelligence, discipline, job knowledge, drafting ability, responsibility and dependability and work output, every government employee will henceforth be tested for a total score of 100.
And, for the first time in government administration, annual “activity-based tasks and targets” will be set for each employee that carry 30 marks in the overall appraisal.
Analytical abilities and the power of expression of each functionary will also count in the new ranking system.
Performance report of each employee will be generated every month using not only “objective and subjective indicators” but also public perception.
The Public Perception Tracking reports over the last four-five months exposed that the government functionaries at various levels were clearly found wanting in their performance and that over 30 per cent of people were very unhappy over this.
The objective indicators, for which 20 marks are allotted, include employee attendance, punctuality, compliance with work hours, unauthorised leave or absenteeism and the e-Office output.
The subjective indicators carry 60 marks, out of which 30 are for activity-based tasks and targets; 15 for ‘Pen Picture’ (of the employee by the reporting officer), 10 for training and five for e-Office management (capacity).
The ‘Pen Picture’ assessment will be done once every six months.
Here, the reporting officer holds the key to an employee’s ranking and he is also the one who sets the tasks and targets and decides if an employee is to be sent for “training”.
If a reporting officer is not satisfied with an employee’s performance, the latter may be asked to undergo training in specified free online\off-line courses. An employee will be ranked only after successful completion of training.
The government machinery has been asked to put the new framework in place soon.
Accordingly, a web portal is being developed with details of all executive and non-executive officers, with a dedicated page for each employee. The Performance Appraisal Reports will be placed on a dashboard being created exclusively for the purpose.