The Department of Pensions and Pensioners’ Welfare has issued comprehensive guidelines for effective inter-ministerial coordination for timely payment of retirement dues (pension and pensionary dues) and issue of Pension Payment Orders (PPOs)/ePPOs of Central Civil Services employees. The key policy measures for systemic improvement are digitization of service records, universalization of Bhavishya, appointment of an inter-ministerial oversight committee in DoPPW and line Ministries and handholding of pensioners through introduction of Pension Mitras / Welfare Officers in all the departments.

1. It has been expressly emphasized that PPOs should include e-PPOs also thereby giving further impetus to the digitization process in the area of pension processing. The requirement for business process re-engineering within each ministry/ Department has also been underscored.
2. The digitization of service records through universalization of e-HRMS for all Ministries and Departments would be instrumental in reducing mistakes and substantial reduction in processing timelines.
3. Major procedural reforms such as clarification on Vigilance Clearance before the retirement has been included for reducing the delay in issuance of PPOs/ePPOs.  It has been clarified that no pension can be delayed for the want of Vigilance clearance as per the specific provisions under CCS(Pension) Rules, 2021. It has been underlined that each ministry/ department should ensure that VC in respect of their retiring employees is issued within 3 months prior to retirement since the validity of a VC is of 3 months as per extant norms.
4. 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 will include setting up of High-Level Oversight Committee (HLOC), comprising of Controller General of Accounts (CGA), Director General (CGHS), Director General (NIC), Pr CCA/CCA (MHA), Pr CCA/CCA(MoF) and CPAO as its members, with Secretary (Pension) as Chairperson.  Along with this mechanism, the Nodal Officers (not below the rank of Joint Secretary or equivalent) and Pension Disbursing Banks will be nominated for oversight in concerned Ministry/Department/Bank.
5. The Oversight Mechanism would be strengthened by introducing auto-flagging and auto-escalation of cases, pending beyond prescribed timelines through technological upgradation in the Bhavishya Portal.
6. The revamped Bhavishya portal would map each employee-wise DDO, HOO, HoD, PAO, CPAO and Pension Disbursing Authority including Bank for effective transaction trail capturing and duly translating into smart monitoring dashboard sharing data-sets and auto-prompts. This would enable effective and accountable monitoring of Oversight Mechanism.
7. Intensive capacity building and training programs, developed on i-GoT Karmayogi Portal in collaboration with Capacity Building Commission, is being envisaged for officials (DDOs, HoOs, HoDs, PAOs and CPAO) involved in pension processing across all Ministries/Departments, focusing on Bhavishya usage and following up of new SOPs.
8. A Welfare Officer or Pension Mitra would be deputed by the Head of office (HOO) with each retiring employee to facilitate filling up of forms and other formalities. He/she shall also be responsible for handholding the dependents for documentation and verification in the event of death of the pensioner while submitting the claim for family pension. A separate circular delineating the roles and responsibilities of the Welfare officer will be issued by DoPPW subsequently.

With these interventions, the Government seeks to achieve the stated objective of ensuring 'issue of PPOs / e-PPO  60 days before the retirement, payment of retirement dues a day after the retirement date and payment of first pension on the last day of following month of retirement' for all Central Civil Services employees, retiring on superannuation will be achieved.

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