Six initiatives of DoPT to improve Good Governance

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.