In order to ensure clean working space, the government today
decided to weed out confidential reports of select categories of retired
employees after normal retention period of about five years.
The Annual Confidential Report ( ACR) or Annual Performance
Assessment Report ( APAR) of retired Private Secretaries (PSs), Principal
Private Secretaries (PPSs) and Senior Principal Private Secretaries (Sr PPSs)
are kept with different units under the Department of Personnel and Training
(DoPT).
On review, a large number of old dossiers of ACRs or APARs in
respect of PSs, PPSs and Sr PPSs retained in this section are being considered
for weeding out, the Central Secretariat division under the DoPT said in a
circular to all unit heads.
According to rules, the ACRs or APARs of a government
employee may be destroyed after five years of his retirement. However, the
confidential performance report can be provided to a retired employee after
completion of the retention period.
Accordingly, all cadre units are requested to intimate the
details of ACRs or APARs of more than five years old in respect of which
requests, if any, have been received for handing over from the retired officer
concerned, it said.
"In case no information is received from a cadre unit by
June 30, 2014, it will be presumed that the requisite information pertaining to
that cadre unit is nil," the directive said.
The move assumes significance as Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth
has recently written to secretaries of various central government departments,
stressing the need for clean working space.
"There are several unnecessary files which are being
destroyed after following due procedures. Other departments will also be told
to destroy ACRs of retired employees after completion of retention
period," a senior DoPT officer said.
Cleaning drives are also being carried out in central
government office premises. "There are certain office premises where
construction material is lying for years. In some office premises, unused or
junked vehicles are also parked. The department concerned will ensure that no
such vehicles or building material are lying," he said.
There will also be regular visit by senior officers to ensure
that cleaning drive is not stopped mid-way, the officer said.
Source : The Economic Times
