Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Saturday announced a significant overhaul of the Annual Performance Appraisal Report (APAR) system for Himachal Pradesh’s class I and II officers, including those in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), to strengthen governance in the state.

“The reforms aim to enhance accountability and transparency by linking the evaluation of officers directly to their work outputs,” he said.

“From now on, all officers, including Administrative Secretaries and Deputy Commissioners posted in districts, will be evaluated solely on their performance in their APARs.

“Under the new system, performance appraisals will be directly linked to the work outputs of all officers,” he said.

The traditional descriptive categories such as ‘Outstanding’, ‘Very Good’, ‘Good’, and ‘Average’ will be replaced with a numerical grading scale. Officers will be assessed based on three key indicators: the accomplishment of their annual work plan, other work-related attributes, and personal and functional attributes, he added.

The reforms also introduce negative marking, with officers potentially losing two points from their overall grade, on a scale of 1-10, for non-compliance with government orders or advisories.

The Chief Minister highlighted the introduction of transparency as a key feature, noting that officers would receive their finalised evaluations, which would foster professional development and encourage improvement in their work performance.

The APAR process will now be entirely online, streamlining operations and enforcing a 31 December deadline for submissions.

He said these changes were designed to ensure a fair and objective evaluation process, particularly for field-level officers, whose performance will be closely tied to meeting quantitative targets.

Sukhu said the higher management officers would continue to be assessed on qualitative aspects and personal attributes.

The Chief Minister said that these reforms were a crucial step towards strengthening governance and would further enhance accountability within the state administration.