Proceedings of the Interactive Session on e-service book held on 14th December,2010

No.21011/30/2009-Estt. (Allowance)
Government of India
Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension
Department of Personnel & Training

New Delhi, December 24, 2010

OFFICE MEMORANDUM

Subject: Proceedings of the Interactive Session on e-service book held on 14th December.                  2010    at North Block, New Delhi.

            The undersigned is directed refer to the D.O. of even number dated 2nd December, 2010 from Ms. Marnta Kundra Joint Secretary, regarding Interactive Session of Nodal Officers on e-service book on 14th December, 2010. The detailed discussion on various issues including the current status of the implementation was held. The Proceedings of the Session are enclosed. All Ministries/Departments are requested to take further necessary action.

s/d
(Simmi R. Nakra)
Director

Department of Personnel & Training

Proceedings of the two interactive Sessions on 14th December. 2010 at 10:30 AM and 03:OO PM in Room No.72, North Block, New Delhi in connection with e-service book

            The Interactive Sessions of nodal officers on e-Service Book implementation was held on 14 12.2010 at 10:30 a.m. & 3.00 p.m. in Room No.72, North Block, New Delhi under the Chairpersonship of JS(Estt.), Ms. Mamta Kundra. The officials of this Department and NIC besides the representatives from the Ministries/Departments attended the session.

2. Smt. Simmi Nakra, Director, Department of Personnel & Training, welcomed all the participants to the Interactive Sessions. The background of the e-service book project was explained to them and the benefits of the system were outlined. It was stressed that employee profiles may be generated and employee feedback may be recorded. The participants were advised to start current entries in the e-service book format along with the previous entries, which could be taken care of in a phased manner by them. This would ensure that the e-Service Books become current quickly. The Joint Secretary (Establishment), Ms. Mamta Kundra, essayed that the basic objective of the Sessions was to seek suggestions and feedback on the issues related to e-Service Book. She stressed upon the importance of service book for the employee and how the e-format would be beneficial in facilitating quicker implementation.

3. The participants were also apprised of the MIS reports generated from the system. A brief was given to the participants with regard to the requirements for the Plan Scheme and they were requested to send the information as sought in the Questionnaire and prescribed proforma immediately. Shri G. K. Gaur, Sr. Technical Director, NIC, gave a brief presentation on the responses to the questionnaire and proforma received from some Ministries. He stressed upon the fact that his sample was too small to reach to some definite conclusion. It was therefore requested that remaining Ministries/ Departments may immediately forward their responses for better appreciation of the issues.

4. During the discussion various issues were raised by the participants. The representative of Ministry of External Affairs, Shri Arun Kumar Chatterjee, highlighted the security angle of the service book data. He requested the NIC to look into this aspect to ensure that the data may not be fiddled with. He also highlighted the specific issue of frequent postings abroad in case of MEA officials and associated maintenance of their service records. It was also mentioned that the Service Books of the officials joining the ministries from outside Delhi are manual service books compared to e-Service Book here and again after completion of their tenure they would have to be provided with manual service book. It was informed that the purpose of the Plan scheme is to introduce e-Service Book throughout the Government in a phased manner and hence all employees will be covered in due course.

5. Some of the suggestions received during the session include:

            The ‘Help Desk’ has to be more proactive. A ‘Call Centre’ type help desk was suggested. Details of spouse, such as working or not working, place of work, date of birth, etc., may be added in the parameters to enable the user Ministry to have firsthand knowledge of status of spouse. Name & designation of the employee should be reflected automatically on all pages once the service book is opened. Service verification page is not user friendly. Mostly the Drawing & Disbursing Officer furnishes a certificate and on the basis of it service is verified as qualifying service or otherwise. Further discussion was held on the issue of verification. NIC was requested to devise a proper system for verification of the data as there is no provision of digital signature.
LTC field is not restricted to one of the members of the family but instead names of all the members furnished in the family details are reflected. There needs to be some arrangement for e-service book to be sent electronically to the Pay & Accounts division for issuing “Qualifying Service” Certificate as well as at the time of settlement of retirement benefits. The leave format in the e-service book needs to be simplified and made more users friendly. At present it is just the replica of physical service book. The balance of leave does not reflect automatically. The previous account of leave is also not reflected. It was also decided to look at the leave format in the physical service book. Information entered in any field cannot be deleted. It was clarified by NIC that information once fed cannot be deleted. Only new information can be added

6.The participants were requested to intimate change of Nodal Officer/administrative officers/officials immediately for the security and authenticity of the data. They were informed that MIS reports generated with a perspective and the access to these would be provided to JS and above level officials in the Ministry, If the need for generation of some more reports was felt, the concerned Ministry may inform DOPT. It was also stressed that any other issues or suggestions which could not be highlighted in the Session could be mailed at eservicebook@nic.in.

7. The Ministries/Departments were requested to furnish the Questionnaire and Proforma A & B, including information in respect of attached and subordinate offices, at the earliest. For updated information on e-service book, the webpage, viz., persmin.gov.in/esbl23/html is required to be seen from time to time by the Ministries/Departments.

            The Session ended with a vote of thanks