EPFO’s IT system collapsing, software causing wastage of time: officers send SOS to Centre

Officers of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation shot off an unusually grave missive to the Central government on Wednesday, slamming its inaction on fixing the fund’s archaic and “collapsing” software systems, and finalising replacements for old servers that would likely stop working by January 2024. Increasing claims pendency The EPFO’s internal official WhatsApp group, with senior officers from the headquarters and field offices, is “flooded on a daily basis with complaints and requests for help from field offices regarding slow or dead working-speed of the software causing wastage of precious man-hours and increasing claims pendency levels”, the EPFOA revealed. “When field offices complain of slow software speed, the reply given to them by head office is that system is running slow due to excessive load of claims processing in the database,” they noted, adding that many field office staffers are routinely working on Saturdays and holidays to catch up. “Furthermore, to evaluate the performance of officers in the field, particularly, in large offices where even a single day’s disruption in system speed has a cascading effect in terms of pendency would not only be arbitrary & unwarranted, but also bring down the morale of EPFO officers and staff who are giving their best performance under such trying circumstance,” the EPFOA concluded.