In the wake of unhappiness among ministers over the reported rating by officials, the government today said there is no evaluation of ministers' performance by the bureaucracy.
"It is not factually correct to say that the serving officers will evaluate the performance of the ministers", the cabinet secretariat said clarifying reports in this regard.
The objective of the Performance Monitoring and Evaluation System (PMES) was to ensure accountability of the department
to the minister, who lays down the goals and targets for each
period and reviews them, it said.
Recent media reports had said that at least four Congress ministers were fighting a move that appeared to give the
bureaucracy an upper hand over political oversight and
leadership.
"This Committee does not evaluate the performance of ministries or departments. It merely provides technical support to facilitate such evaluation by the ministers concerned," the cabinet secretariat said.
Observing that the assertion that the system was run by a committee on government performance was not true, it said
according to prime minister Manmohan Singh's orders, the main
function of this committee was to ensure uniformity, consistency and coordinated action across various departments.
"It (committee) does the secretarial work of preparing guidelines, ensuring timely submission of Results-Framework Document (RFDs), and providing feedback to the ministries/ departments concerned. It plays a supportive role to facilitate the smooth functioning of PMES," the secretariat said.
The prime minister’s order was clear that the entire process has to be driven by the ministers, it said.
According to the order, "at the beginning of each financial year, with the approval of the minister concerned, each department will prepare a RFD consisting of the priorities set out by the ministry concerned, agenda as spelt out in the manifesto if any, president’s address, announcements/agenda as spelt out by the government from time to time. The minister in charge will decide the inter-se
priority among the departmental objectives."
The secretariat also pointed out that the order further required that "to achieve results commensurate with the priorities listed in the Results-Framework Document, the minister in charge will approve the proposed activities and schemes for the ministry/department.
The ministers in charge will also approve the corresponding success indicators (Key Result Areas) KRs or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and time bound targets to measure progress in achieving these objectives," the secretariat said.
