New Delhi: The Centre has issued comprehensive guidelines for effective inter-ministerial coordination for timely payment of retirement dues and issue of Pension Payment Orders of Central civil services employees.
Major procedural reforms such as clarification on vigilance clearance before retirement has been included for reducing the delay in issuance of Pension Payment Orders (PPOs)/ePPOs, an official statement issued on Tuesday said.
“It has been clarified that no pension can be delayed for the want of vigilance clearance as per the specific provisions under Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 2021,” it said.
It has been underlined that each ministry/department should ensure that vigilance clearance in respect of their retiring employees is issued within three months prior to retirement, said the statement issued by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.
The key policy measures for systemic improvement are digitisation of service records, universalisation of Bhavishya (system provides online tracking of pension sanction and payment process), appointment of an inter-ministerial oversight committee in Department of Pensions and Pensioners’ Welfare (DoPPW) and line ministries and handholding of pensioners through introduction of pension mitras/welfare officers in all the departments, it said.
It has been expressly emphasised that Pension Payment Orders (PPOs) should include e-PPOs also thereby giving further impetus to the digitisation process in the area of pension processing, the statement said.
The requirement for business process re-engineering within each ministry/department has also been underscored, it said.
The digitisation of service records through universalisation of e-HRMS (electronic-human resource management system) for all ministries and departments would be instrumental in reducing mistakes and substantial reduction in processing timelines, the Centre said.
Robust inter-ministerial Oversight Mechanism (OSM) for Bhavishya will be introduced for monitoring the processes so that the time limits, prescribed for each of the stakeholders, are followed scrupulously, it said.