1. How the system works

SPAS is the County’s electronic Staff Performance Appraisal System. It captures the official CGTR001 and CGTR002 forms online, stores official signatures, and produces the PDF that Public Service keeps on file.

Which form appears

Section 1 Job Group selects the official form automatically. Do not pick the form by hand.

Status of a report

2. Suggested training timetable

Use one hall with projectors on spas.tanariver.go.ke. Officers should bring Personal Number, work email, and their supervisor’s Personal Number.

Train staff first, then supervisors, using the same sample appraisal so the portal is not empty during Module B.

3. Accounts, sign-in and passwords

Create an account

1. Open https://spas.tanariver.go.ke and choose Register.
2. Enter Personal Number (this is the username for all future sign-ins — not a personal file number field with another name).
3. Enter first name, last name, official email, password, and confirm password.
4. Submit. Check email for a verification link. If mail cannot be sent, the system may still activate the account and ask the officer to contact support.

Sign in

1. Choose Sign in.
2. Personal Number, then password.
3. The dashboard My appraisals opens.

Forgot password

On the sign-in page use password reset. A link is sent to the registered email. The new password must be kept confidential; SPAS holds official personnel records.

Training demo accounts

These three accounts exist on the live portal for workshops only. Password for all three: DemoSpas2026!

4. Module A — Staff (appraisee)

Audience: every officer who is appraised. Goal: one complete, signed appraisal for the current period.

A1. Open a new appraisal

1. After sign-in, click Start new appraisal.
2. The wizard opens on Section 1. A banner shows CGTR001 or CGTR002 after Job Group is saved.
3. Use the left-hand section list to move between steps. Save each section before leaving it.

A2. Section 1 — Employment details

Complete all starred fields:

• Personal Number, surname, first name, other names
• Designation and Job Group / Salary Scale (this chooses CGTR001 or CGTR002)
• Terms of service, department, directorate, section/unit, duty station
• Appraisal period from / to
• Supervisor’s name and designation (required on CGTR002)
• Supervisor’s Personal Number — must match the supervisor’s SPAS account

Click save. If the supervisor number is unknown to SPAS, a warning appears. Ask the supervisor to register, then return to Section 1 and save again.

A3. Performance targets

• CGTR001: agreed targets, performance indicators, mid-year remarks.
• CGTR002: Section 2(a) targets and indicators (SMART, aligned to the work plan).

Add enough targets for the year’s work. Keep language specific and measurable. Scores are entered later by the supervisor (or administrator), not by the officer on this screen.

A4. Training and development

List training needs in priority order, based on performance gaps agreed with the supervisor. Record the officer’s name and date where asked. Supervisor sign-off fields on this step are completed by an administrator if they appear locked.

A5. Mid-year review (CGTR002 only)

Record progress, achieved results, and any targets that changed. This is the official mid-year conversation, not a second annual form.

A6. Appraisee comments

Write an honest end-of-year comment. On CGTR002 you may also list additional assignments. Supervisor remarks on this page are for the supervisor or administrator.

A7. Last step and submit

The last wizard step holds CHRAC recommendations (rewards, sanctions, minute number, chairperson and secretary). Those fields are locked for officers and supervisors. Only a system administrator can type there. Saving the last step submits the appraisal (status becomes Submitted).

A8. Sign the report

1. From My Appraisals open Sign for that record.
2. Choose Draw signature or Upload signature.
3. To draw: use a mouse, trackpad or finger. Use Clear drawing if needed.
4. To upload: sign on a blank white sheet in dark ink, photograph it close-up with no shadow, then choose the image. Read the Please observe box and confirm before saving. SPAS removes the paper background and keeps the ink.
5. Click Save signature. The image is printed on the official PDF.
6. Download PDF only after the supervisor has signed, to check names, period, form type and signatures.

A9. Dashboard actions

A10. Notifications

When the supervisor scores, comments or signs — or when Public Service approves — the officer sees Notifications in the top menu (with a badge) and a list on My appraisals. An email is also sent if the account has a working address. Open a notice to go to that appraisal.

5. Module B — Immediate supervisors

Audience: heads of section, unit or directorate who appraise staff. You use the same SPAS login as any officer. There is no separate “supervisor account type”. You become a supervisor when staff enter your Personal Number in Section 1.

B1. Open the Supervisor portal

1. Sign in, then click Supervisor portal in the top menu. A badge shows how many appraisals name you.
2. If the list is empty, the officer has not saved your Personal Number, or they used a different number than the one on your account.
3. Filter by status (draft, submitted, under review, approved) as needed.

The dashboard counts: team size, awaiting your signature, awaiting rating, submitted, and fully signed.

B2. Review and score an officer

1. Open the officer’s row → review.
2. Confirm designation, job group, department and period.
3. Enter a score against each performance target. On CGTR002 you may also record achieved results and mid-year remarks.
4. Note the running total, mean score, and the suggested rating from the official scale.
5. Write supervisor remarks (including performance improvement comments where required on CGTR002).
6. Confirm your name and overall rating, then save. Status moves to Under review if it was draft or submitted.
7. Choose save and sign if you are ready to append the signature in the same sitting.

B3. Sign

On the Sign page, only the supervisor signature is enabled for you. Draw it, or upload a photo of a signature on plain white paper (same rules as staff). Both signatures appear on the PDF. When you save scores, remarks or a signature, the officer is notified in SPAS (Notifications) and by email.

B4. Reports

• Download report on one officer — that officer’s official PDF, only after you have signed.
• Team report PDF or CSV — Personal Number, name, designation, department, period, form, status, mean score, rating, and whether each party has signed.

6. Module C — System administrators

Audience: ICT / Public Service officers with staff access. The administration site is https://spas.tanariver.go.ke/admin-spas/ (not /admin/). Sign in with a user that has Staff status (and Superuser if they must create other admins).

C1. Create or repair a user

1. Open Users (Custom users).
2. Add user: Personal Number as username, email, names, password.
3. For a portal administrator tick Staff status. For a full system administrator also tick Superuser.
4. Tick Active and Email verified if the officer cannot receive mail and HR has confirmed identity.
5. User type “System Administrator” is a label on the account; access to this site still depends on Staff / Superuser flags.

C2. Find an appraisal

Under Core → Appraisals you can search by Personal Number or email, and filter by form (CGTR001 / CGTR002), status, rating and period. Columns show Personal Number, names, department, form, status and dates.

C3. Complete and approve

Open the record. Work through:

• Approval checklist — Section 3 supervisor name, Section 3 supervisor date, and Section 2 scores must all be present.
• Performance targets inline — enter or correct scores if the supervisor has not.
• Section 3 — supervisor name and date (and mid-year supervisor fields on CGTR002).
• Section 4 — appraisee comments and supervisor remarks / PIP comments.
• CGTR002 CHRAC signatories — chairperson and secretary names, signatures and dates.
• Official signatures — preview of PNG signatures and timestamps. Do not impersonate a signature here; officers and supervisors must sign on the portal (draw or upload).

When the checklist is green:

• Approve & Generate Final PDF — sets status to Approved, computes overall rating from the mean score, and emails the officer where mail is configured.
• Approve & Download Final PDF — same, and downloads the file immediately.
• Or tick Approve appraisal and finalize document and save.

Overall rating is taken from the mean of scored targets using the official scale in section 7.

C4. Bulk download from the appraisal list

Select rows (or select all matching the current filter), then Actions:

• Download as ZIP (selected) — one PDF per officer
• Download as PDF (selected) — one file, or a merged PDF if several are ticked
• Download CSV (selected) — Personal Number, names, department, form, status, rating, period, total and mean scores

C5. Departmental reports

Open https://spas.tanariver.go.ke/admin-spas/reports/ (staff login required).

• Filter by department or view the county as a whole.
• Read totals: submitted, under review, approved, draft, rejected, approval rate, average mean score.
• Charts: status mix, departments by mean score, monthly trend.
• Download Final … (ZIP) — approved PDFs for that department or all departments.
• Download a single officer’s PDF from the listing on that page.

C6. Other admin records

Performance targets, ratings, training needs and workflow history are listed for audit. Prefer editing them from the parent Appraisal so JSON sections stay consistent.

7. Official rating scale

Shown in the wizard sidebar. Mean score of entered target scores maps to:

Targets should be SMART. Over-scoring to force “Excellent” without evidence undermines the county file and CHRAC recommendations.

8. Common problems

9. Practice exercises for the workshop

Use a test Personal Number agreed with ICT. Do not use live production data for first-time practice if a training copy of the site is available.

Staff exercise (15 minutes)

1. Register or sign in.
2. Start a new appraisal for a short sample period (for example one quarter).
3. Complete Section 1 with the trainer’s supervisor Personal Number and your real job group.
4. Add two SMART targets and save.
5. Add one training need.
6. Write a one-sentence appraisee comment.
7. Save the last step, then sign (draw or upload from white paper). Download the PDF after the supervisor has signed.
8. After the supervisor acts, check Notifications.

Supervisor exercise (10 minutes)

1. Sign in as the supervisor used in Section 1.
2. Open Supervisor portal and find the trainee.
3. Enter scores, remarks and rating; save.
4. Sign; then download the officer PDF and the team CSV.

Administrator exercise (10 minutes)

1. Sign in at /admin-spas/.
2. Open the trainee’s appraisal; complete any missing checklist items.
3. Approve and download the final PDF.
4. Open Reports, filter a department, and show the ZIP download (do not email the ZIP outside the session).

Support contact. Public Service Management / ICT, County Government of Tana River. Call 0712 187 646 · 0702 870 600 · 0790 670 478 · 0723 924 327 · 0720 592 165 · 0722 809 995 . Full list: /support/. Portal: spas.tanariver.go.ke. This guide: /training/.