The
Times of India: Kolkatk: Saturday, October 20, 2012.
The Right To
Information (RTI) Act has empowered even the state government officers and they
are making the most of it. Under the act, officers who have been denied a
promotion or are unhappy with their career graph are now seeking copies of
their annual confidential reports (ACR).
Government
officers in Bengal are making use of the RTI Act to their advantage. Those
unhappy with their career path are asking for copies of their annual
confidential reports (ACR) when denied a promotion.
"We
can't refuse if they ask for ACR copies," said a joint- secretary rank
officer.
Armed with
copies of ACR, these disgruntled officers are then approaching the state
administrative tribunal (SAT) in order to get promotion.
These
disgruntled officers after securing the copy of ACR are approaching the state
administrative tribunal (SAT) for getting promotion.
The ACR of
officers depends on various factors, personality, capacity for sustained work,
tact and ability to work with others, ability to control subordinates and
reliability to carry out instructions being some of the most important.
Normally the ACR of the officers depends on their personality, capacity for
sustained work, tact and ability to work with others along with ability to
control subordinate and reliability to carry out instructions.
Besides,
officers are also marked on their attendance, punctuality, responsibility,
initiatives, knowledge of work, power to inspire people while doing public
work, integrity and devotion to work.
The skills
are evaluated on a scale of 0 to 4, where 4 stands for excellent, 3 for very
good, 2 for good, 1 for average and 0 for poor. For an officer to be eligible
for promotion, one needs to score 27.5, an official said.
The RTI has
worked wonders for many such officers who are dissatisfied with the way their
career is shaping up. A number of departments in the secretariat are in fact
being flooded with requests for copies of ACRs.
Some officers
are also going to the extent of asking for reports of 'lesser efficient' colleagues
who had been promoted. One such officer, on condition of anonymity, said he did
so in order to show the SAT authorities that despite a good track record he was
denied promotion because he didn't have a good rapport with his senior.
Instead, a colleague, low on integrity, was promoted. The officer felt his
refusal to regularize some financial bills according to his superior's
directives may have also cost him his promotion.
Now a number
of departments in the secretariat are getting regular requests from the
officers for copies of their ACRs. Even there are instances where the officials
are asking for ACRs of other colleagues who have been promoted. As a
disgruntled officer who was denied promotion, but his colleague who was known
to be inefficient had been promoted and for that he asked for both ACRs. The
officer on condition of anonymity said that he wanted to show to the SAT
authority that even after having a very good track record, he was denied
promotion only for not having a good rapport with his superior, while a
colleague was granted promotion who was earlier marked low for integrity for
having vigilance case. Moreover, he said that he had declined to regularize
some of the financial bills according to his superior's directives, which led
to the grudge, he felt.
Even in some
departments officers not only want details of vigilance reports against them
but also against their colleagues. So, they can strongly prove their point.
The reports
of colleagues are also helping officers to prove their point. "Two top
officials of our department have a much publicized discord. Keeping this in
mind, junior officers are also filing RTI applications to get information on
the vigilance cases against other officers," said a senior officer of the
forest department. there is much discord among the two top officials as two
Principal Chief Conservation of Forests fighting against each other in the
court, the junior officers are also filing RTI complaints to know about the
vigilance cases lying against other officers.
"But we
do not always entertain such a request. Moreover, for providing ACRs or
vigilance details of a third party we have to seek approval of the person
concerned," another forest official said.
Officers
seeking such details felt otherwise. A person who had applied for the vigilance
details of a corrupt officer working in the self help self employment
department said that the department officers were shielding data on grounds of
confidentiality and thus he failed to get the necessary data. So, complaints
are also arising against officers handling the RTI cases and not co-operating
with the public.
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