:Regarding reliability in mail operations-Sop for tallying abstract and resolving discrepancies.

N.F.P.E.
ALL INDIA RMS AND MMS EMPLOYEES UNION GR.'C'.
MAHARASHTRA CIRCLE BRANCH
Com. A.B. Shivtare (Circle Secretary)
Add : HSA HSG-I, Parcel Hub Pune C/o. HRO, RMS B Division, Pune 411001
Email Id: nfpemhr3@gmail.com, arvindshivtare@gmail.com Website : nfpemhr3.blogspot.in
Ph. 9404962745, 9762768201
No. MH/RIII/SOP/Mail Operation/06/2019-20  Dated: 10/05/2019

To
The Chief Postmaster General,
Maharashtra Circle,
Mumbai 400001

Sub: Regarding reliability in mail operations-Sop for tallying abstract and resolving discrepancies.

Ref:  Dte No.3-6/2018-PD dated 01-05-2019

Respected Sir,

This is regarding communication received on the subject from Parcel directorate for inviting suggestions on the SOP for all offices dealing with accountable articles, record offices and their administrative offices.

In this regard it is agreed for reliability towards mail operations should be observed at all mail offices during the working at all accountable mail offices as well as non accountable also. But it is not acceptable to blame on working staff that the lack of reliability in mail operations is the core constraint in increasing the mail offices.  It is accepted that to improve reliability , it is essential  that abstracts are tallied in every offices, errors are issued in case of any discrepancies are noticed, errors are taken note of and acted upon by all offices concerned and staff is held accountable for any act of commission of or omission. In this regard it is also requested that while implementation of SOP following aspects may be taken under consideration.
1. Shortage of Manpower: It is brought to notice that due to shortage of manpower, due to  non fill up vacancies, the work is being required to be managed with unskilled staff or outsiders who are not familiar with the work culture and due to working of unskilled workers we could not expect the quality work.
2. There is also shortage of supervisory staff and no supervisory staff is being provided to the mail offices as per norms and the supervisor posted could not pay attention at the all branches or the all unskilled staff/outsiders.
3. As per guidelines given by the directorate the incharge shown as ASPOs but actually he is not posted physically or does not monitor any thing only taking reports from the HSAs/Supervisors and submits to higher authorities. The Higher Authorities not directly taking view of the staff working at field and hence actual working and problems faced by the staff remains unattended.
4. Problems in Software/CSI:  Following problems faced while working on SAP/CSI due to bugs in the software or non attention of problems faced by the staff. The software  of CSI/SAP should be user friendly and without any discrepancies in track and trace out system and tallying the abstract.
a. The abstract received on the SAP is mostly remains untally even though there is no article remains for dispatch on SAP. It is shown that there is no article pending for dispatch but while generating Set abstract there is difference between receipt and dispatch side and it not possible to prepare manual abstract when our system is working on CSI/SAP and manual preparation of abstract is not advisable.
b. The system accepts the duplicate barcode or barcodes not at par with guidelines on the subject. Previously on Speednet/ RNet/ Parcelnet duplicate/ illegal/illogical barcode numbers were not accepted by the system.
c. It is also observed that all type of mail is being accepted at receipt side but we could not dispatch the same at the time dispatch of mail and message being received that article could not be closed this type of bags.  It is therefore concentration should be taken at all level. i.e. from Post offices that the only bags may be closed as per type of bags i.e. E series Speed Articles for NSH/ICH, C Series Parcel Articles to NPH /SPH, Express articles for EPH, R Series Registered articles to CRCs  and L Series Ordinary articles to Ord. Mail Offices. It should be ensured that the software should also not accept the articles than the type of bags at post offices.
d. There is provision in the system to capture damaged article. But no error is being generated from the system accordingly.
e. There are virtual scanning articles received from the system while opening of bags for some time the virtual receipt was disabled but now again activated. While taking receipt system shows that short / excess receipt of articles but no any error generated accordingly from system.
f. There is no provision reports of leakage / abstraction of  articles in the system it may be incorporated.
g. While taking details of articles receipt or articles despatched from consolidated abstract then remark of no data exists shown.
h. As regards receipt of bags, it is observed that the mail is being received from various section/flights/road transport or as the case may be. But the point to point transmission of bags is not shown at the point of receipt point of mail or the barcode number of bags are not shown at mail list only number of bags received from the destination to destination are shown i.e.  from B18  section 13 bags from Ph Nagpur to PH Pune received but there is not mentioned actual bagwise barcode number at receipt point only required to count the bags and not as per with bag label. It is therefore required to provide handheld device to capture or prepare mail list at sections also so as to monitor the transmission of bags and accuracy of mail and to avoid loss of bags.
i. It is also observed that some mail offices / Post offices are dispatching loose parcels/ speed parcels, BPCOD, EPCOD and SPCOD articles to next destination instead of closing in proper bags. This may cause loss of article or any other things abstractions. Instructions may be given to all post offices/ Mail offices that under any circumstances  article should not be dispatched in loose manner.
j. Some time Bags received at mail offices could not be opened due to shown as forward bags in system or some offices are closing bags for different office but dispatching to next destination. i. e. Chanakyapuri  Delhi closing bags for Delhi PH But label shown as Mumbai PH and dispatched to Mumbai PH  to avoid double handling of mail then it could not be opened at Mumbai PH.
k. It is required to generate all discrepancies, reports, short and excess of bags at the time of closing of set by system only instead of preparation mannaully by the HSAs/ Supervisors. 
l. All receipt of articles/Bags should be taken on software only there is no reason to take manual abstract of articles or Bags after the rollout. All trace and track and reporting should be done on system only.
m. It is also brought to notice that the articles are not track and traced out till the delivery point hence the complaints from the customers increasing only due to not shown movement of articles even though articles are dispatched.
5. Regarding reporting Mechanism: In this regard it is brought to notice of your honour that all sets are being managed by the HSAs/Supervisors as the case may be. Reporting of the discrepancies is the duty of the Set supervisor/HSAs but it is not possible to maintain inward or outward register for the same and take up follow up of the cases. As this type of work should be done at record offices as there is no separate provision to engage staff for dealing office work at field/mail offices i.e. NSH/ICH/NPH/SPH/CRCs. It may increase the unnecessary work at mail offices and diversion of concentration of supervisory staff from monitoring work of NSH/PH/C Regd. Mail into office work. HSAs/Supervisory staff should be concentrating only on the quality of work of the mail office so as to improve and smooth functioning of offices. As regards recovery or cases of negligence of duty may be decided as per rules on the subject after initiating necessary enquiries.
6. NORMS of handling of mail : In this regard, it is brought to notice of your honour that the work is being done on CSI/SAP and it is being processed as per the speed received from the network/bandwidth only but some divisional head has decided abnormal norms to handling of mail and insisted for the same without considering ground reality causes in errors and omissions by the staff working  on system. It is therefore necessary instructions may be give in to divisional head to concentrate on accuracy and quality work instead of pressing hard for more output than the expectations.
7. Training to Supervisory Staff: It is brought to notice of you honour that there is no any training module developed for LSG/HSG-II and HSG-I officials who are working at a capacity of HSAs/Supervisors. If department wants to fix responsibility on supervisory staff then it is duty of department to impart training to all supervisory staff  to educate them with new software’s/ working culture and  development of department time to time to keep their knowledge up date. It is observed that the duties of office in charge being assigned to ASPOs/IPs but no ASPOs/IPs is being working at field level and they only prepare reports and peruses the next authority.   If any progress/ Success found in mail offices then ASPOs/IPs or divisional heads are being appreciated but the staff working at field only taken responsible for errors/omissions not in the success and achievement of department by considering their performance.  While introduction of new software or new innovation the supervisory staff may also be considered for training instead of deputing only ASPOs/IPs.
The staff working in mail offices also wants reliability in mail operations for improvement of business of department. Your honour is requested to kindly take up issue with appropriate authority to consider before finalization of SOP for tallying abstract and resolving discrepancies. I shall remain highly thankful to you for doing the needful.
With warm regards,

Yours sincerely,


(A B Shivtare)
Circle Secretary
AI RMS and MMS Emp.  Union Gr C
Maharashtra Circle