Govt to Grant Special Performance Incentives to Officers

The government has decided to grant special performance incentives to officials equal to one month’s basic pay.

On Prime Minister’s directives, a summary for the grant of special performance incentives to the officers/officials of the Federal Government was submitted to the Cabinet by the Finance Division.

The Cabinet vide decision had directed on May 31, 2018 that a new policy for the grant of an honorarium may be presented to the newly elected government for approval.

Based on the above decision of the Cabinet, the Prime Minister on – 16th April. 2020 directed Finance Division to place a draft policy before the Cabinet. Furthermore, Financial Management and Powers of Principal Accounting Officers Regulations, 2021 warrants the formulation of a policy for the grant of honoraria. At present, there is no reward regime in place for high-performing individuals in the federal government.

This results in their demotivation and adversely impacts the efficient functioning of the government. Moreover, the work assigned to some of the divisions/offices is comparatively more laborious and demanding than others as it involves an over-arching role covering the whole of the federal government.

This does not mean that contribution by other Ministries/Divisions is less significant. Similarly, it would be an over-simplification to assume that the entire manpower employed in the former category of Ministries performs in a uniform manner.

In this backdrop, Finance Division proposed the reward regime/policy for grant of honoraria, once in a fiscal year, based on performance appraisal of the employees that;

1. there shall be three types of Honoraria: (a)Performance Honorarium;(b) Special Honorarium;(c) Budget Honorarium.
2. The Principal Accounting Officer (PAO) will grant a performance honorarium equal to one month’s basic pay to the well-performing officers/officials of a Ministry/Division;
3. The PAO may grant one additional honorarium equal to one basic pay, on outstanding performance, to not more than 25 percent of employees of a Ministry/Division;
4. Special honorarium, up to two months’ basic pay, will be granted by the Principal Accounting Officer (PAO) to a specific individual employee for performance of a special one-time task, assigned by the PAO in writing, beyond the normal official responsibilities during the course of the financial year. The special honorarium shall not be granted to more than 5 employees in a Ministry/Division during a financial year;
5. Finance Minister will grant budget honorarium to the employees posted in Finance Division; the Revenue Division; the Federal Board of Revenue; the Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Division, and the Prime Minister’s Office.

The quantum of budget honorarium for each financial year shall be decided by the Finance Minister.