Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Apr 23: In a significant decision to enforce financial discipline in Jammu and Kashmir, the State Government, has for the first time, decided to impose complete ban on any kind of expenditures without budgetary or administrative approvals and form an Empowered Committee comprising top officers of the Finance and Planning Departments to monitor the spending.
Top official sources told the Excelsior that a decision to this effect has been taken by the Government keeping in view large scale expenditure by different departments previously without any budgetary or administrative approval, leading to liabilities worth several hundreds of crores of rupees, which the Government was finding it tough to clear.
“The decision 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 has the budgetary approval or any other kind of administrative nod in writing. This will help maintain codal formalities and check the works being executed without tenders,’’ they said.
The proposed high level Committee would be headed by the Principal Secretary, Finance Department (presently BB Vyas) and comprise Director Generals of Accounts, Audit and Inspections and Budget among others. The Committee would be empowered to incorporate any other member it deemed fit for ensuring financial discipline in the State.
The Government is shortly going to come up with detailed guidelines that will be addressed to the Administrative Secretaries of all the departments to monitor and ensure spending strictly as per the budgetary provisions or obtaining nod of the authorized Government functionary and that too in writing and completion of all formalities.
“The guidelines are being framed and will be out soon,’’ sources said.
The high Empowered Committee would be assigned the task of regularly monitoring expenditures by the various departments and see to it that there was no violation of the Government norms including the budgetary provisions and the administrative approval by the designated authority.
The Government decision was also necessitated following series of critical paragraphs by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) for the past several years highlighting spending by various Government departments without administrative or budgetary approval.
“The CAG has also come out with serious observations against some departments that they carried out works merely on verbal instructions of the Ministers, thus, not only violating the financial norms but also creating huge liabilities, which have to be cleared,’’ sources said noting that these liabilities could have been easily avoided especially when the State was previously faced with the financial crunch.
Asserting that the Government was bound to clear the liabilities, sources said 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.
According to sources, the proposed Empowered Committee would monitor the major works on regular basis with Administrative Secretaries and District Development Commissioners on regular basis and seek their report. This will help the Government to see to it that no works were going on without tenders or administrative approval. Directions to this effect would be conveyed shortly to all concerned Departments.
Sources admitted that huge liabilities have been created due to works ordered previously without Administrative or District Development Board (DDB) approval or anything in writing. These works, they said, had been taken up by the Departments only on verbal instructions of the Ministers.
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