20 January 2005	Thursday	09 Zilhaj 1425

ISLAMABAD, Jan 19: The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) has drafted a Performance Management System aimed at improving the performance of the tax officials.

The proposed system is part of the CBR's efforts to restructure the tax administration.

The board's Human Resources Management (HRM) department has sought views and suggestions from stakeholders in this regard latest by February 15. The proposed system would help in bringing a cultural change and enabling the tax officials to distinguish between outstanding, good and poor performers and recognize and reward them accordingly.

It has been developed after extensive interaction and feedback from three task forces constituted at Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad. Human Resource Management (HRM) Member Zafar Aziz Osmani told Dawn that the task forces reviewed the current Annual Confidential Report system and unanimously concluded that it failed to achieve the very purpose for which the system had been established.

The current system has been found highly subjective and it has failed to identify and communicate the areas of improvement to the employees due to confidentiality reasons, he added.

Mr Osmani said the ACR system had not been able to provide a mechanism for distinguishing between good and poor performers. Analysis of all units has shown that most of the employees are rated either excellent or very good, which is not a true reflection of the reality, he added.

The HRM member said the new performance appraisal system would enable the managers to agree performance standards with their staff and then evaluate the team's individual and collective performance against these targets and standards. He said in the next step, this performance system would be linked with training needs assessment, pay for performance and promotions.