Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 22: The Jammu and Kashmir Government today set a deadline of January 2018 for the replacement of existing Treasury system to Pay and Accounts Office (PAO) system to simplify the process of Government payments in the State.
“The concerned officers need to expedite the process so that PAO system can be launched in the State by January 18. Finance department has a huge public interface and this new system would surely help in simplifying the whole process of government payments,” Finance Minister Dr Haseeb A Drabu said today.
Drabu passed the directions at a meeting convened to review the progress made on replacement of existing Treasury system to PAO system, which was one of the budgetary proposal of the Finance Minister.
The Minister asked the officers to ensure that everyone working with this new system should be assigned with a meaningful role for better delivery of services.
He said the operational staff should lay focus on streamlining the payment system and to ensure payments in a specified period.
“There is a need to design the system in such a way that it meets the future requirements and should be functionally aligned rather than geographically demarcated,” he said.
Drabu said he would personally review the progress twice a week so that the required changes in the draft model including administrative reforms would be made before finally switching over to the PAO system.
The new system is being integrated with Budget Estimation, Allocation and Monitoring System (BEAMS) for better check of budgetary allocation and authorized expenditure.
Dr Drabu while presenting general budget for 2017-18 had proposed abolition of Treasury system in Jammu and Kashmir by switching over to new Pay and Accounts Office (PAO) system from September 2017.
However, the deadline was missed as there were number of formalities which the Finance Department had to complete before ending the Treasury system, which had been going on for the past several years.
According to sources, the Government has now completed majority of formalities for adopting Pay and Accounts Office system in place of the treasuries and it will come into force on January 18, the new deadline set by the Finance Minister, who would be presenting his next budget in second week of January, 2018.
Sources said the switching over to PAO system would fulfill the budgetary proposals, which had to be implemented by March 31 next.
It may be mentioned here that the State Vigilance Commission (SVC) headed by former Chief Vigilance Commissioner, Kuldeep Khoda had recommended to the Government to abolish treasury system in the State as part of series of anti-corruption measures.
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