Submission of Annual Performance Assessment Report for 2025-26 through SPARROW

Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (MINISTRY OF LABOUR & EMPLOYMENT, GOVERNMENT OF INDIA) Head Office Plate A, Ground Floor, Block II, East Kidwai Nagar, New Delhi-110023 Website: www.epfindia.gov.in

File No. HRD-II/65/2025/APAR/2024-25/1542 Dated: 20 APR 2026

To, All Additional CPFCs (HQ)/ Director (PDNASS) All Additional CPFCs (Zones) Additional CPFC (ASD), Head Office/ Additional CPFC (ZTis) All RPFCs/OIC in charge of Regional Offices/ District Offices

Subject: Submission of Annual Performance Assessment Report (APAR) for the year 2025-26 through SPARROW-reg.

With reference to the subject cited above, it is informed that APARs for the year 2025-26 for all cadres, except certain cadres such as MTS, Electrician, Lift Operator, Driver and other such cadres, are to be mandatorily filed through Smart Performance Appraisal Report Recording Online Window (SPARROW). The SPARROW module can be accessed through Railtel VPN URL https://sconnect.railtel.in/.

2. The timelines for completion of various activities for the year 2025-26 are as under:-

3. The ACC (HQ) (Zones/PDUNASS)/ ACC (Zones/ZTis/Sub-ZTis/ASD) are assigned the role of Service Admin and they have to assign the role of PAR Central Custodian (Primary) to the OIC/RPFC (Adm)/APFC (Adm) in the offices under their jurisdiction, using the "Role Mapping" tab available on their SPARROW homepage.

Service Admin may also assign the role of PAR Central Custodian (Alternate) to an officer, to manage the workload.

4. PAR Central Custodian (Primary) role is responsible for creation of the APAR workflow i.e. the APAR mapping and also the generation of APAR. APAR workflow can be created using the "Workflow" role available on the left-hand side panel of the SPARROW homepage of the user having the PAR Central Custodian (Primary) role. Similarly, APAR generation can be done using the "Generation" button under the PAR tab available on the SPARROW homepage of the user having the said role.

5. Any missing user profile on the SPARROW or any change to the posting profile of any existing user can be done using the Personnel Information Management System (PIMS) database. The PIMS data base can only be accessed by the EMD Administrator. The Service Admins need to appoint one officer as the EMD Administrator in all the Regional Offices under their jurisdictions and also the Zonal Office and provide the details of these officers to the Head Office in format attached as Annexure A. The PIMS can be accessed through the NIC WEBVPN URL "https://saccess.nic.in".

6. Changing the EMD Administrator must be avoided; and therefore the must be selected carefully in the first instance. However, if there are compelling reasons to change the EMD administrator a request may be sent to Head Office at rc.hrm8@epfindia.gov.in.

7. It is further clarified that in respect of Office-in-charge (OIC) of Regional Offices Reporting Officer will be Zonal heads and Reviewing Officer will be CPFC. Competent Authority 1 and Competent Authority 2 both are same, and is positioned one level above the Reviewing Officer. It is also informed that, wherever ACC is the reviewing authority for RPFC-II/ APFC cadres, the competent Authority is ACC (HQ) HR at Head Office.

8. Certain cadres like, MTS, electrician, driver and other such cadres, who do not have official email IDs and hence not registered as SPARROW users, shall file their APARS through HR Portal of EPFO for the year 2025-26.

9. In cases where reporting or (and) reviewing officer have retired, the DoPT guidelines (Gazette notification number G.S.R. No. 596(E) dated 16.06.2017) state as follows:

"7A. Restriction on reporting authority, etc. in certain cases. - Notwithstanding anything contained in rules 5, 6 and 7, it shall not be competent for the reporting authority, reviewing authority or accepting authority to write a performance appraisal report where the authority reporting the performance appraisal report is a government servant, after one month of his retirement from service; and in other cases, after one month of the date on which he demits office."

10. A No Report Certificate (NRC) is to be issued under the following circumstances: When the Officer Reported Upon (ORU) has not worked under any Reporting Officer or Reviewing Officer for the minimum requisite period of 90 days ( e.g., due to long leave, study leave, maternity leave, training, suspension, or unauthorized absence) OR When both the Reporting Officer and the Reviewing Officer have retired, and the extended period of one month for writing the report has lapsed.

Steps to Issue NRC: Log in as Custodian -> Workflow -> Create/Update -> Select assessment period -> Search employee -> Click "Create/Update Workflow" -> Choose Status: NRC and Form Type: NRC -> Continue -> Click "Save" on the pre-filled page.

PAR Generation: Go to PAR tab -> Generation -> Select assessment period -> Search user -> Click "Generate" -> Fill NRC form with required details -> Submit to concerned ORU.

11. Some users have reported the following error while trying to access the Sparrow "USER NOT AUTHORIZED TO ACCESS THE SERVICE". This error occurs for one of the following two reasons:
12. User does not exist in Sparrow. Solution: EMD administrator can create the user by following accessing PIMS using the URL "saccess.nic.in".
13. The default Login ID mentioned in SPARROW is incorrect. Solution: The EMD administrator has to correct the Login ID in SPARROW and make it the same as the Login ID mentioned in the KAVACH App. The Kavach login ID is the correct one and can be found by clicking the 3 horizontal lines on the top left side of the Kavach app homepage. The login ID is mentioned at the top, just above the email ID.

Further, if the issue still persists, kindly forward the same to the Head Office for resolution.

12. While creating a new employee i.e. a missing user, the following things may be noted: a. Fields which are not Star Marked may be skipped. b. Wrapper Organisation (Global) and Organisation Unit are the name of the office where the official is posted. c. Cadre Service Identification Number and Employee code are the same. d. Login Type is NIC/Gov-LDAP ID e. Login ID is the same as the Kavach Login ID (Kavach Login ID can be searched as explained below in the email). f. User type and Login user type is Sparrow g. User name is the name of the official h. Designation Classification is Others i. Designation level may be marked as per the equivalence to the ministerial grade or as others

13. It is further informed that there is a synchronization lag of about one hour between the PIMS database and the Sparrow module. So any changes made in PIMS will take about an hour in reflecting on the SPARROW.

14. It must be ensured that data in respect of all the officials in SPARROW is complete in all respect and duly filled up. Any modifications in this regard can only be carried out by the EMD Administrator.

15. A copy of the user manual for SPARROW is attached herewith as Annexure B for ready reference. However, in case of any issue, reference may be sent to rc.hrm8@epfindia.gov.in by the concerned office.