CBI ties up with IIM-B for better performance appraisal system

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will soon become the first police organisation in the country to adopt modern tools for performance appraisal of its personnel, on the lines of the corporate sector. The system is being designed in consultation with experts from the Indian Institute Management, Bangalore.

The agency on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding with IIM-B. One aspect of the agreement is to suggest changes in the performance appraisal system of the country's premier investigating agency, which at present is driven by statistics. Now, the CBI is preparing to measure the performance of its investigators on the basis of the efforts they put into solving a particular case along with the complexity of the probe, rather than going by just the number of cases cracked.

The exercise is aimed at identifying the priority areas for optimum use of CBI's human resources, in order to develop customised modules for better use of its workforce and keeping it in tune with fast-changing technologies.

''Suppose one case is cracked by an investigator in three months and another is solved by 20 investigators in six months, should we still compare them as one unit of work? This is one the issues we will be looking at,'' said CBI joint director R S Bhatti after the MoU was signed.

"One of the issues we need to examine is to redefine the existing ways of measuring our work output - whether one RC (regular case) or PE (preliminary enquiry) should constitute one unit of work," Bhatti added.

As of now, a major parameter for the appraisal of a CBI officer is number of cases successfully investigated and disposed of.

The agency will use the relationship with the premier management institute to bring a host of changes, including introducing a management information system which will help senior officers across the country monitor the work being done by subordinates in distant locations.

This has been a work in progress for the last six years, but it is said to be the efforts of director Ranjit Sinha and former special director Saleem Ali which saw the MoU being signed.

"The objectives are wide in scope and broad in range to cover all aspects of the working of CBI, right from human resource management to performance management, which are top priority areas for the CBI," Sinha said.