Centre to assess if bureaucrats can ‘stand up for what is right’

Bureaucrats could soon be appraised on specific attributes like if they can take timely and effective decisions in critical or complex situations and if they can take the ownership of responsibilities “with courage to stand up for what is right”.

The Centre has written to all states last week proposing modification of the yearly performance appraisal forms of IAS officers, and inclusion of a new section where comments of both the reviewer, as well as the officer being appraised, will be sought in 50 words each on five specific attributes.

These attributes are – “the ability to take timely and effective decision especially in complex, ambiguous and critical situations; ownership of responsibilities with courage to stand up for what is right; innovativeness; track record of delivery; and ability to lead a team with coordination and collaboration.” First, the officer reviewing the performance of his junior will write his comments in 50 words for each of the five attributes and then the concerned officer will comment on the same in 50 words too if he agrees or does not agree with the reviewer’s comments.


States have to send in their comments by June 28 or their consent will be presumed and the proposal will go through. This seems in line with the Narendra Modi government’s idea of encouraging a “decision-making bureaucracy that does not crack under pressure of deadlines or suffer from policy paralysis,” a senior government official told ET, on condition of anonymity.

Leadership capabilities are also sought to be assessed by the same and their ability to deliver on key priority schemes of the government. The proposed changes are to be done by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) which reports to the Prime Minister.

Another proposed change is that the length of a “pen picture column” to be written by the reporting officer on his areas of strengths and weaknesses and his attitude towards weaker sections, is reduced from 100 to 50 words.

Another proposed addition to the appraisal forms is a section where an officer will be asked to indicate four relevant “domain assignments” from a list of 12 domains – this seems to be an attempt by the government to let the officer concerned specify his domains, so that the same may be kept in mind before giving him or her the next assignment or posting.