An incentive structure akin to one prevalent in private sector could soon be in place for government servants as well, building on the extensive performance review that is already underway for them, a top government official said.
“An incentive system is being worked upon as recommended by the sixth pay commission. It could be implemented by next year,” Prajapati Trivedi, secretary , performance management, said at the annual economic editors’ conference.
The incentives would be given out from the cost savings achieved by a bureaucrat in his role and will, therefore, not place an additional financial burden on the government, he explained. Besides, the extensive job performance parameters, these incentives would also depend on cost saving on account of reduction in the use of office stationary and savings in electricity consumption. Cabinet secretary K M Chandrashekhar has already written a letter to all secretaries to the government of India on their performance targets.
A mid-year review of the performance of government departments and officials is currently underway, that will give them fair idea of how each fares with respect to their agreed goals.
The government had put in place a performance monitoring and evaluation system following an announcement in this regard by the President in her address to both the houses of Parliament on June 4, 2009. The first evaluation was carried out last year which was limited to only three months of the fiscal.
The current year’s evaluation would be the first comprehensive exercise, which will be illustrated in a report card. This report card will be finalised by May 1 each year.
The new policy is designed on what is already in place in many countries. New Zealand, United Kingdom and USA carry out extensive performance reviews of their government departments.
The results framework document of each ministry or department will be put on its website to ensure stakeholder participation and transparency of the exercises . The concept is based on a paper prepared by the IIM, Ahmedabad.
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