May 25, 2008	Sunday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 19, 1429

LAHORE, May 24: Finding the system of writing annual confidential reports (ACRs), a breeding ground of nepotism, corruption and coercion, the Punjab government has decided to amend it by making reporting officers responsible for any faults in theses documents and delay in their completion.

“We are going to issue fresh instructions in this regard by Monday to make the system of ACRs helpful in truly assessing performance of officers. Right now, the brunt of faulty or delayed ACRs is being faced by the junior officers and not their bosses,” a senior government official told Dawn here on Saturday.According to him, writing the ACRs was the responsibility of the reporting officers but it had been shifted to the junior officials, leading to malpractices, promotion of undeserving officers and sidelining of the deserving ones.

He said from now onwards, turning an inefficient officer into an efficient one, and the dishonest into honest would badly reflect on the reporting authority who would be asked to explain as to why action should not be taken against it for the misconduct.

Writing ACRs was also being made the responsibility of the reporting officers instead of their juniors. This would help eliminate the practice of exploiting juniors, he added.

All officials were being directed to fill in the face sheets (basic information) of their ACRs by due date and send them to the S&GAD so that they could be absolved of causing any delay in the process.

The government also planned to deny promotions to the reporting officers failing to timely complete the ACRs.

The official said under the law every official was required to fill in the face sheets of his or her ACR by January 7 every year. Similarly, the reporting officers were also required to complete the ACRs by February 15 every year.

The counter-signing officers were also required to finalise the ACRs by March 31 and send them to the S&GAD in case of provincial officials and to the establishment division in case of federal government officials.

“We are going to make them all follow the rules or face the consequences,” he said.

He said the reporting officers were being asked to send the ACRs directly to the S&GAD to eliminate chances of leakage of the report which was a confidential state document. The S&GAD would in turn evaluate the reports through other methods and by comparing these with general reputation of the officials concerned. “We have seen very good ACRs of the officials who do not have a matching reputation,” he said.

Similarly, in case of adverse remarks in the ACR, the accused official would be allowed to make a representation and file an appeal directly to the government instead of playing to the tune of the reporting officer for a correction.

The official said the decision to reform the system had been taken after finding that the ACR writing had become a privilege and was no more considered a duty, leaving juniors officers at the mercy of their bosses.

The reporting officers, he said, in many cases had not been writing the ACRs of those not in their good books and on the other hand they would write the reports in front of their blue-eyed officers.

There were countless cases in which the reporting officers would give adverse remarks against their juniors without fulfilling the legal requirement of giving them verbal and written warnings, and awarding them minor punishments for misconduct.

“This loophole has been benefiting the inefficient and corrupt officials because adverse remarks in their ACRs are invariably expunged because of bypassing the earlier steps,” he said.

He said in some other cases the reporting officers were given an opportunity to amend the adverse ACRs after the passage of some time because this was made mandatory for the promotion of junior officers. “This means you have to get the good report by hook or by crook. The appeasement of the reporting officer can require anything,” he said.

He said the ACR system was the worst so far as the assessment of an official’s efficiency and conduct was concerned because no sanctity was attached to it. But unfortunately it was the prime source of the assessment, he added. “That’s why we are going to plug the loopholes in the process,” he said.