CHANDIGARH: Himachal Pradesh’s Class I and Class II officers, including those of IAS, will get numerical grading in their annual performance appraisal report (APAR) system. “The reforms aim to enhance accountability and transparency by linking officers’ evaluations directly to their work outputs,” Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said.“From now on, all officers, including administrative secretaries and deputy commissioners posted in districts, will be evaluated solely on their performance for their APARs. The traditional descriptive categories, such as ‘outstanding’, ‘very good’, ‘good’, and ‘average’, will be replaced with a numerical grading scale,” he said, adding that officers will be assessed based on key indicators: accomplishment of their annual work plan, other work-related attributes, and personal and functional attributes.The reforms aim to enhance accountability and transparency by linking officers’ evaluations directly to their work outputs. “The reforms also introduce negative marking, with officers potentially losing two points from their overall grade, on a scale of 1-10, for non-compliance of government orders or advisories,” Sukhu said.The chief minister said that these changes were designed to ensure a fair and objective evaluation process, particularly for field-level officers whose performance would be closely tied to meeting quantitative targets. “Higher management officers would continue to be assessed on qualitative aspects and personal attributes,” he said.Sukhu said that these reforms were a crucial step toward strengthening governance and would further enhance the accountability within the state administration. Sukhu highlighted introduction of transparency as a key feature, noting that officers would receive their finalised evaluations which would foster professional development in their work performances. The APAR process will be online with December 31 as the deadline for submission.AIMS FOR ACCOUNTABILITY The reforms aim to enhance accountability and transparency by linking officers’ evaluations directly to their work outputs. The CM said that these changes were designed to ensure a fair evaluation process, particularly for field-level officers whose performance would be tied to meeting quantitative targets
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