Group-A officers exempted from submitting annual medical report due to COVID-19 situation

Vijay Mohan
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, November 27

Group-A officers of the Central Civil Services would not be required to submit their annual medical report for the year 2019-20 due to the situation arising from spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In view of the prevailing situation, it has been decided to exempt Group-A officers of the Central Civil Services from submission of summary of medical report for the year 2019-20. Summary for medical report for the year 2019-20, if already submitted by any officer may, however, be taken on record,” orders issued by the Department of Personnel and Training on November 26 said.

Consequent to the nationwide lockdown imposed in March to mitigate the spread of the pandemic and subsequent restrictions imposed on the functioning of offices and movement of personnel, the time line for submission of the annual performance assessment report (APAR) for 2019-20 as well as the accompanying medical report was extended by several months.

Later, the submission of the medical report was delinked from the APAR and the period for the conduct of annual medical examination and submission of the report, normally done by April 15 every year, was first extended up to June 30, 2020 and then to December 31, 2020.

The timeline for recording the APAR and processing it up the administrative chain had also been extended. It was also then directed by the government that this year APAR may be submitted as per the timeline without the medical report.

Under the revised timeline for APAR, issue of blank forms or online generation of report for the previous fiscal was to be done by July 31 and the entire process, which includes review of controlling authorities as well as receipt and disposal of representations from aggrieved employees, is to finish by March 31, 2021.

Generation of APAR in the Central government is now an online process only through a system called Smart Performance Appraisal Report Recording Online Window (SPARROW).