New Delhi, Feb. 9 -- The Cabinet Secretariat has reportedly introduced administrative performance scorecards to evaluate Secretaries and their departments across the Central government.

The scorecards include negative marking, with up to 12 marks deducted for excessive spending on foreign visits or events, abnormal pendency of files at the Secretary level and above, and delayed payments to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), The Indian Express reported.

Each Secretary and department is evaluated on nearly a dozen parameters, with a total score of 100 marks.

File disposal carries the highest weightage at 20 marks, followed by output or activities, expenditure on schemes, and capital expenditure, each carrying 15 marks.

Other c...