Dr. Lalit Setia: Organizational Performance depends upon Financial Management

Organizational Performance depends upon Financial Management

-Dr. Lalit Kumar

Financial Administration:

In public sector organizations, most of the drawing and disbursing officers (DDOs) functions in coordination with the Accounts Officers (AOs) and perform their duties very sincerely. They require to have clarity on various areas of finance and accounting to make their decisions more effective. The accounting system is also required to be supervised constantly to prevent the mal-practices. It is required to adopt Double Entry System-cum-Accrual Accounting followed by use of technological tools like in private sector organizations, using Systematic Application Product (SAP) in financial operations.

Accounting Standards:

The Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) of private sector organizations are equivalent to Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) of public sector organizations. The Accounting Standards of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) are adopted in private sector organizations while in public sector organizations, the Accounting Standards of Government Accounting Standards Advisory Board (GASAB) are implemented.

Procurement Functions:

The use of Government e-Marketplace (GeM) in procurement made the public sector organizations stand at par with the private sector organizations in procuring goods and services. With the constant regular training for upgrading the skills of DDOs, the public sector organizations are performing well and delivering public services in more efficient manner. The Administrative Training Institutions (ATIs) are coming ahead to bear the responsibility of improving the performance of public sector organizations with providing training to the officers and conducting research studies to enhance the transparency and accountability in the system.

Capacity Building for Governance:

The Department of Administrative Reforms and Pension Grievances (DARPG) constantly sponsoring the capacity building programmes and providing financial assistance the raise the standard of living in public through infusing money in various projects. From last one decade, the role of DDOs and CFOs has become hard due to rising level of corruption and mal-practices in organizational operations. It is must to adopt practical solutions along with improving the transparency and accountability.

Challenging Role of DDOs:

The role of DDOs is more challenging because the employees in their organizations cannot be easily removed from their job-role and show less motivation to deliver better results. The rules and regulations are also not modified strictly as per the requirement to deliver better organizational performances. Even if the rules and regulations are modified, it is difficult to implement the change in their organizations.

Challenging Role of Administrators:

The officers with Indian Administrative Service (IAS) cadre play a very critical role by coordinate themselves between the Ministers and employees of public sector organizations. The rely upon the Head of Offices (officer-in-charges of field organizations) to have better performance and the Head of Offices remain in close touch with advisors, chartered accountants, consultants, and trainers to complete their functions in more effective way.

The challenges in front of IAS officers and concerned ministries required to be modelled in the form of Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs) keeping in view the role of each and every officer of their concerned departments. After having SoPs, it is required to enforce the control with fixing the accountabilities of each employee with strict action in case of irregularities and non-compliance of rules.

Functions of Finance and Accounts Branch

Most of the organizations are headed by the Administrative Officers including IAS Officers in Government / Public Sector Undertakings and Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) in Private Sector Organizations. Whatever functions an organization is doing, its financial records, financial decisions, and financial analysis are done by its Finance and Accounts Branch. Let’s have a snapshot on the functions of Finance and Accounts Branch i.e. the functions of Chief Accounts Officer (CAO) in Government / Public Sector Undertakings and Chief Finance Officer (CFO) in Private Sector Organizations:

Financial Management for Organizational Performance

Finance Functions in Government Organizations:

In order to ensure proper functioning of the department, the Finance and Accounts Branch facilitates in proper management of funds keeping in view the compliance of financial rules, prescribed procedures in Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs) of internal checks, maintenance of accounts which are audited by Accountant General at regular intervals, and compliance of taxation rules including income tax and goods and services tax (GST). The functions may be categorized:

a. Maintenance of Books of Accounts

b. Statutory Compliances

c. Disbursement and pre audit of expenditure

d. Funds Management

e. Preparation and disbursement of Salaries /other remunerations

f. Application of funds

The employees of Finance and Accounts Branch are entrusted to implement and ensure proper internal checks & control, statutory compliances, flag financial irregularities (if any), ensure quality and speed of disposal of bills and sanctions, proper utilization of funds with furnishing of utilization certificates. But with continuous change in the finance and accounting framework; due to changes in accounting system i.e. manual to computerized, changes in income tax and goods & services tax (GST), changes with adoption of Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs); there is acute requirement to assess the training needs Finance and Accounts Branch for improvement in effectiveness of the performance of accounts personnel.

Use of Information Technology:

The employees working in finance and accounts branch performs their functions on e-Office and Tally Software and also use MS-Excel software for reporting purposes. The work-load becomes huge most of the time due to continuous involvement of the employees in maintenance of cash book, entry of vouchers, processing of bills and sanctions, enforcing deductions and recoveries, and submission of returns of e-TDS and GST. The Information Technology is used to perform the functions fast and efficiently.

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