Mehta launches SPARROW portal for Gazetted Officers

Jammu, Sep 16: Chief Secretary, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta launched the Smart Performance Appraisal Report Recording Online Window (SPARROW) system for all gazetted officers of the Union territory Government today at Civil Secretariat, Jammu.
On the analogy of Performance Appraisal Reports of AIS and JKAS officers, the Government of J&K has now decided to switch over Annual Performance Reports from manual to online generation and recording in respect of all gazetted officers on this system. The URL for the new SPARROW instance would be https://jaksparrow.jk.gov.in.
The technological intervention is going to benefit all gazette officers in the UT Government and is aimed at bringing more transparency, avoiding loss of appraisal reports during transition, ensuring better monitoring and timely completion of performance appraisals.
The Project is being implemented by the General Administration Department in collaboration with the Information Technology Department and the National Informatics Centre.
The Sparrow System will not only overcome the delay in the processing of the manual recording of APRs but will also facilitate the electronic filing through a user-friendly interface – anywhere, anytime. Recording and movement of e-APR forms will be seamless, quick, and convenient due to in-built alert mechanisms and online status checks through different modes during the workflow.The system would streamline the APR life-cycle and would be a major administrative reform.
In the new system, the departments as Custodian would send online blank APR forms to the individual officer being reported upon. The concerned officer would fill self appraisal online for its submission to his/her Reporting Officer. The APR would move from Reporting Officer to Reviewing Officer and finally to the Accepting Authority in a time-bound and seamless manner.
The Chief Secretary, while inaugurating the portal, directed that all APRs of gazetted officers pertaining to 2021-22 and earlier years will now be processed only in online mode on this portal and there be no more physical processing of APRs in respect of all gazetted officers. As such, even the officers who have already submitted physical APRs for the year 2021-22 will now have to compulsorily file their APRs electronically on the portal. The timelines, in respect of filling self-appraisal will be extended from 15th September earlier to 31st of October for the purpose. Other timelines in respect of initiating, reviewing and accepting authorities will also be revised, accordingly.
The Information Technology Department was asked to conduct extensive trainings of the officers on the subject for smooth transition to new system and upload the help videos on the portal for convenience of the filing officers.
In addition, the Chief Secretary asked the General Administration Department to pin-point the officers who have defaulted in writing the APRs during this year and initiate action against the delinquent officers.