Central government employees of performing ministries to get incentives from 2012

ALL Central government employees may get performance-related incentives as the UPA government is set to implement Performance Related Incentive Scheme (PRIS) as was recommended by the Sixth Pay Commission. The employees will start getting the incentives from April 2012. According to The Hindu newspaper quoting unnamed government sources, the announcement in this regard would be made in a few days.

BoI (babusofindia.com) in a report dated May 10, 2010 reported how Dr Prajapati Trivedi, secretary of the performance management division under cabinet secretariat, worked out a proposal under which senior administrators like secretary or additional secretary would get a bonus of no less than 20% of their salary provided his ministry meets 100% target and saves money from non-plan expenditure. The joint secretaries and other employees in Central government would also be major beneficiaries of the proposal which has the blessings of cabinet secretary KM Chandrasekhar and understandably of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. But if the performance of a department/ministry is 70% or less, the concerned officials won't get a penny as bonus. (Read: BoI report on incentives to officers, May 10, 2010)

According to media reports now, a Committee of Secretaries (COS) chaired by Cabinet Secretary KM Chandrasekhar approved the Performance Related Incentive Scheme (PRIS) on March 8, and details would be worked out soon. According to the proposal, all Central government employees working in performing departments (meeting over 70% targets) stand to benefit. Whereas for junior officials and employees, their own performance would determine the amount of incentives, the performance of the ministries or departments would count more in case of officers at the level of joint secretaries and above.

Currently, the performance of only 62 government departments are being judged by RFD (Results Framework Documents) system. So, it remains to be seen how the government would determine the incentives for officers of non-RFD ministries like PMO, home, defence and external affairs?