Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Aug 7: In a meeting held at the Raj Bhavan today Principal Secretary Finance, Navin K. Choudhary gave a detailed presentation to Governor N.N. Vohra on the execution of current year’s budget, the obtaining fiscal and revenue position and the various salary related and other emerging fiscal problems.
He informed the Governor that while revenue expenditure is taking place at its own pace, the pace of developmental expenditure needs to be speeded up so that the targets fixed for the year are achieved.
Governor re-iterated his serious concern for maintaining financial prudence, ensuring against any kind of wasteful expenditure, utilisation of available resources for securing the maximum possible benefit for the people, while adhering to financial rules and regulations to ensure transparency and accountability of public expenditure.
Appreciating the functioning of the Expenditure Management Cell in the Finance Department, Governor emphasized the need to use IT tools to regularly monitor all expenditures. He directed that all releases should be timely made through BEAMS and PFMS and DBT Portal should be fully operationalized for capturing all expenditure data to ensure transparency.
Governor directed Principal Secretary Finance to closely scrutinize the entire Budget to ensure against any avoidable expenditure and all resources being used for the completion of all incomplete projects. He also directed that the contracting and procurement processes should be revamped to bring them in line with the best practices elsewhere.
While expressing regret on the very slow progress to regularize the services of casual labourers, need based workers etc., Governor directed that all Administrative Secretaries should be urgently informed to personally monitor the urgent submission of cases to the Finance Department for approval and if they found that the number of casual workers shown against their Departments are in- correct, the same must be immediately corrected. Governor emphasized the need to have a full clarity regarding the exact number of eligible workers who have to be regularized.
To curtail the continuing delays in the disposal of files/papers in various offices, Governor directed Finance Secretary to work out a strategy with IT Secretary for introduction of File Tracking System in all offices of the Civil Secretariat.
Governor observed that he would address Union Finance Minister and request very early concurrence for raising of Rs.3500 crores State Power Bonds to clear Power Purchase liabilities which, interalia, will result in financial savings of approx Rs.500 crores on annual basis. He also directed the Finance and Planning Departments to closely monitor reimbursement of funds under PMDP and CSS by various concerned Central Government Departments and to keep him informed.
Meanwhile, in a meeting with Saugat Biswas, Secretary Information Technology, Governor N.N. Vohra was briefed about the status of attendance in offices and progress in registering and monitoring attendance in all Government offices of the State.
Secretary Biswas informed Governor that since the last review on 28th July the registration on the Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS) has risen by 45,167, taking the total registration of employees on the AEBAS to 3,52,841. He informed that before imposition of Governor Rule, only 73,461 employees were registered on the AEBAS portal.
He informed Governor that the total number of employees working from the Civil Secretariat stands at 2,519 and today 98.57 % are registered on the AEBAS; the rest will get registered within the next 7 working days.
Governor has directed that the attendance of employees in every office upto the Block level and those below that level which have access to internet shall be marked on the AEBAS equipments which will be installed latest by the third week of August. Administrative Secretaries have been instructed to further ensure that their subordinate offices, across the State, are got onboarded to the AEBAS system within the stipulated timeframe and wherever it is not possible, due to technical or operational hurdles for on-boarding on the AEBAS, reliable means must be established to mark the attendance of the concerned employees.
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