It has come to the notice of the Chief Minister that financial discipline in the State Departments is loose and almost arbitrary. Some Departmental Heads are given to the habit of spending on plans and projects that are not covered by the budgetary allocations. In other words, they themselves frame plans of development and then withdraw money without prior permission or assent from the competent authority. In doing so, the Departments have unnecessarily taken the responsibility of framing the plans and sanctioning the finance without consulting and seeking permission from the Planning Department. This is not the way of doing things. We fail to understand the compulsions for the departments or departmental heads to ignore the procedure of allowing matters to go through the complete cycle. To make the work go smoothly, the State Government has imposed ban on any kind of expenditures without budgetary or administrative approval from the Government. This is a measure for strengthening the income of the State. However, the order made exceptions for those who want to thoroughly discuss the subject-matter and convince the authorities concerned that there is no alternative to taking up the project by the department and incur financial expenditure for the same. When departments spend out of budgetary allocations, they incur liabilities which the Government has to meet unwillingly.
We welcome the decision of the Government and hope that it will go a long way in maintaining financial discipline in the State as the departments wouldn’t be allowed to undertake any work that didn’t have the budgetary approval or any other kind of administrative nod in writing. This will help maintain core formalities and check the works being executed without tenders. If the exercise is begun today, it will get regulated with the passage of time. That is why we welcome the decision of the Government. The authorities have decided to take all pre-emptive measures now onwards to see to it that the works were undertaken only after completion of formalities and other necessary approvals of the concerned authorities.
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