RTI turns ACR's to APAR's

**Dr. Pathak** · 06-16-2007, 07:09 PM

ACR are to be written by an Group 'A' Officer every year in the month of March and submitted by the month of 'April'.
If the officer do not fill in the 'self appraisal' part of the ACR, it is deemed to be filled in and the reporting officer should complete the ACR without the self appraisal.
The ACR is not shown to Officer been reported upon except for any adverse entry made which invariably need to be communicated to the officer and the Officer can then 'represent' against the adverse entry.
The reporting officer need to grade the officer in the benchmark from Adverse, Average, good, very good, Outstanding. The catch lies here, if the grading is adverse or average, it had to be communicated to the officer, however, Good, Very Good and Outstanding need not. Now the benchmark for the promotion from say 'Junior Administrative Grade' to 'Senior Administrative Grade', one need to have a minimum of 'Very Good'. Thus an Officer getting 'Good' grade will always remain at disadvantage and would also never know this.
Now, practically, ACR may remain not filled by reporting officer for long, but during promotion, it invariably gets filled up before being put up before DPC (Departmental Promotion Committee)
If the reporting Officer (Boss) gets transferred or the Officer himself gets transferred and if the period of report is less than 3 months, the ACR need not be filled and only remark of 'less than 3 months' is written. This way the reporting officer gets enough time to know the officer been reported upon.
The ACR can never get lost, and if lost; proper Departmental Disciplinary action need to be initiated under the conduct Rules.

**karira** · 06-26-2007, 03:19 PM

Sponsorer

ACR contents can be disclosed with safeguards: CIC

New Delhi:: The Central Information Commission has ruled that information contained in the Annual Confidential Report (ACR) can be revealed with certain safeguards. Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah held that though disclosure of ACRs is exempted under the provisions of RTI Act, information relating to categorisation in terms of Departmental Promotion Committee proceedings can be disclosed .

Appellant Sharda Meshram had sought information about minutes of the DPC proceedings and categorisation of the ACRs from the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to protect her service prospects in the light of her having been superceded in seniority. The DoPT refused to provide the information on the grounds that contents of the ACR are exempted from disclosure. The panel held that as far as the proceedings of the DPCs were concerned, disclosure will bring in fairness and neutrality and will make the system more accountable.

Regarding the ACRs, the panel held that though the disclosure of ACRs was exempted under section 8(2) of the RTI Act, the appellant in present case had only asked for information limited to categorisation in terms of DPC proceedings. The only conceivable exemption under the provisions could be the fiduciary relationship of the department with the members of the DPC or invasion of privacy of the persons whose names were considered by the DPC.

IndianExpress.com :: ACR contents can be disclosed with safeguards: CIC

**karira** · 10-22-2007, 01:42 PM

Please also see the following thread:

Disclosures of Annual Confidential Reports (ACR) comes under Official Secret Act

**vashisthvivek** · 11-05-2007, 11:55 AM

Originally Posted by karira

RTI turns ACRs into APARs

After ACRs (Annual Confidential Reports), were ordered to be disclosed by the Gujarat Information Commission (GIC), under RTI, instead of the expected jubilation amongst ranks, most officers' preferred to wait, speculating on the government's reaction.

The reaction was quite unexpected.The Centre's Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), notified the 'All India Services (Performance Appraisal Report) Rules, 2007'. Thereby, ACRs are now APARs (Annual Performance Appraisal Report), and IAS, IPS, IFS officers, across the country would have full access to them.

DoPT was earlier against disclosing ACRs. Their stand was supported by the Central Information Commission (CIC). DoPT's hand was forced by GIC's order.Government officers are after all nothing but public servants.

While as citizens first, Officers find the door open to their right to know how they have been assessed, however it has its flip side too. Now the citizen too can learn how efficient these public servants are and who assessed them. Maybe Officers seeking their ACRs at GIC did not foresee this, but this possibility cannot be ignored. The wall of secrecy has now been brought down. Officers in Gujarat have unwittingly done a favour to their brethren across the country.

Times of India, Ahmedabad
12.04.2007

Comments:
This is real good decision in favour of citizens.
Now we will know who works and who doesn't

Can you please provide me the decision of the Gujrat Information Commission as referred in your above post?

**karira** · 11-07-2007, 05:39 PM

Vshishthvivek,

I tried : GIC - Gujarat Information Commission

But most of the decisions are in Gujarati, which I cannot read.
Can you please take help of someone speaking Gujarati and check decisions made before 12 Apr 2007 (since there is no search function on the website of GSIC)