Uniformity in Accounts of Haryana Government

 Uniformity in Accounts of Haryana Government

-By Dr. Lalit Kumar

Statement of Purpose:

The uniformity in accounts is generally ensured by enforcing the Accounting Standards and the purpose is improving financial reporting. In India, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (C&AG) constituted Government Accounting Standards Advisory Board (GASAB) on dated 12th August 2002 and the GASAB is working as a nodal advisory body to formulate and improve standards of government accounting, financial reporting, and enhance accountability mechanisms. As per a document compiled by GASAB entitled, “Primer on Accrual Accounting”, there should be a transition to an accrual-based system for improving financial reporting. Government Accounting is primarily concerned with the recognition, measurement, and reporting of transactions undertaken by governmental entities and it is quite different in many aspects from business and commercial accounting. Government financial information is used by a wide range of stakeholders, all of whom have an interest in the financial health and management of public resources.  For improving the quality of the information on which basis the decisions are usually taken by the Authorities of Public Sector Organizations, it is desirable to adopt uniform and comparable accounting practices. The Robust and Uniform Set of Accounting Standards can bring greater stability in the economic system; enhance the accountability and efficiency to govern. It can become a basis for evaluating the financial positions of the organizations easily and support the effective decision making.

Accounting is an effective tool for improving the finance function in Government and there is need for both uniformity and transparency by following standards, rules, regulations etc. It is well-known fact that the functions of Government Organizations by nature are diverse and there are numerous legal and fiscal constraints under which the financial operations must be conducted. Due to this limitation, the financial reporting also becomes different and the particulars of receipts, payments, accounting principles, and financial statements also differ from one organization to another as per the nature of the functions.

With the help of uniform accounting, the Administrative Officers, Finance Officers including Accounts officers not only summarize the financial accounts in terms of income statement and balance sheet but also make decisions with a comparison of the figures with greater transparency. Arthur Stone Dewing rightly said, “All decisions are financial decisions.” Critical analysis and evaluation is used as a base to take effective decisions in organizations and financial management is a yardstick used to judge most of the operations and projects of an enterprise.

Aims and Objectives:

The main objective of this research is to examine and evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of uniformity in Government Accounts and how it affects the financial management, decisions of the Officers relating to the financial health of the organizations.

Review of Literature:

Amyas Morse (2013) in his report examined how far finance is at the heart of decision-making in government. He emphasized the importance of effective financial management in supporting sound decision making, facilitating accountability, improving and refining planning, and enabling an organization to devise its strategy and manage risks. He explained how the government has made some significant financial management processes more coherent and simplified reporting at three stages i.e. plans, estimates, and expenditures outturns. In the research, various strategic challenges for financial management have been identified including cost reduction, strategic planning, prioritizing in the allocation of resources, difficulties in rendering local public services, and lack of skills associated with effective financial management. It is concluded that the government has succeeded in a number of areas in controlling spending however it still faces a significant challenge in redesigning and transforming public services.

Government of Haryana (2016) describes the accounts of government companies audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India under the provisions of Section 619 of the Companies Act. The report detailed the performance audits on the functioning of DCR Thermal Power Plant, Yamunanagar, and RG Thermal Power Plant at Hisar and pointed out an amount of nearly five thousand crores related to avoidable expenditure, non-compliance of rules, directives, and procedures. There are 30 Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) in Haryana including 25 working PSUs and 5 non-working PSUs. The government exercises control over the affairs of the PSUs through its administrative departments. The State Legislature monitors the accounting and utilization of invested amounts in the PSUs. The total investment in the form of Capital and Long-term Loans was Rs. 40,984.19 crores as of 31^st March 2015. In the report, it is found that the DCR Thermal Power Plant and RG Thermal Power Plant incurred avoidable expenditure towards penalty imposed by ECL and kept excess inventories than the normative limit set by HERC. There was an unfruitful expenditure of Rs 6.4 crores in December 2009 on the Computerized Maintenance and Inventory Management System (CMIMS) which had not been made operational till June 2015.

Vishal Gupta, Swanand Kulkarni, Naresh Khatri (2018) explored the key managerial challenges faced by the leaders and managers of public sector organizations. They used an open-ended questionnaire to gathered data from 42 senior managers of PSUs from various industries representing 12 Indian states in different regions of India. On the basis of in-depth qualitative analyses, they tried to find the ground realities of Indian Public Sector Undertakings and what they found that there are three key managerial challenges i.e. political interference and lack of autonomy, rigid rules, and HR practices, and lack of employee motivation. Finally, it is concluded that there is a dominant role of Indian cultural and political contexts in influencing the experiences of leaders working in public sector organizations.

The review of literature reveals that the decisions of the Government are affected by the level of uniformity in the accounting of organizations. There are few research studies in the areas of uniformity of accounting and it needs to relook this area of research with consistent changes in the accounting systems and new approaches in Accounting and Finance. The present research will bring useful results for improving the financial decisions of the Government because the quality of financial reporting is a factor for fixing the responsibilities of the concerned Officers/Officials. It will determine the effect of uniformity in enhancing public finance accountability management.  

Research Methodology:

The research is descriptive and data will be collected firstly from secondary sources, thereafter if required, from the primary sources using a survey with a pre-determined structured questionnaire. The primary data will be gathered through the questionnaire method and also with the help of discussions and interviews covering both personal and telephonic interactions. The targeted population will be Finance Officers including Chief Accounts Officers, Senior Accounts Officers, Accounts Officers, Section Offices and Accounting Staff working the Haryana Government Organizations. Adequate Sample units keeping in view the constraints of time and cost will be selected using the Simple Random Sampling method. The data collected from Secondary and Primary sources will be analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical methods. The research is descriptive and data will be collected firstly from secondary sources, thereafter if required, from the primary sources using a survey with a pre-determined structured questionnaire. The primary data will be gathered through the questionnaire method and also with the help of discussions and interviews covering both personal and telephonic interactions. The targeted population will be Finance Officers including Chief Accounts Officers, Senior Accounts Officers, Accounts Officers, Section Offices and Accounting Staff working the Haryana Government Organizations. Adequate Sample units keeping in view the constraints of time and cost will be selected using the Simple Random Sampling method. The data collected from Secondary and Primary sources will be analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical methods.

References/End Notes:

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[i] The information of GASAB is retrieved on http://gasab.gov.in/gasab/about.aspx.

[ii] A document is retrieved from the portal of GASAB i.e. http://gasab.gov.in/gasab/pdf/Primer.pdf

[iii] ICAI (2017), Government Accounting System in Developed and Developing Countries – A Comparative Analysis retrieved from https://cpfga.icai.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Government-Accounting-System-in-Developed-and-Developing-Countries.pdf

[iv] This information is retrieved from the lesson, “Government Financial Operations: Accounting and Reporting”, retrieved from https://study.com/academy/lesson/government-financial-operations-accounting-reporting.html

*Copyright © 2021 Dr. Lalit Kumar. All rights reserved.

This article is written by Dr. Lalit Kumar Setia; a renowned author and trainer. The article was published on 1^st September, 2021 and last updated on 4^th September, 2021. The writer can be contacted on lalitkumarsetia@gmail.com 

Money Matters in Government Office

Money Matters in Government Office

-Dr. Lalit Kumar

Utilizing Public Money in Government Office:

After joining a Government job, each employee is expected for adopting absolute integrity in official functions. Whatever task is assigned; it is assumed that proper account of utilizing money or financial resources be maintained by the employee. The Government Accounting Rules, 1990 guides to adopt the accounting systems for fair representation of the resources utilized in the office. Before joining the Government job, an employee may be using personal money or parents’ money and maybe extravagant in the making of expenses but while using public money or government money, it is expected that decisions are taken keeping in view various rules, instructions, and directions of Government. While in personal life, it was not mandatory to keep the account of money utilized on which expenses/assets and even there is no-one to put a finger against the person for misuse of the money, but in case of using money in Government, there are rules and instructions which can prove the irregularities on part of employees, there are RTI Activists seeking information of business affairs of Government offices to find out the irregularities of Officers / Officials, there are people who are waiting for any mistake by any employee so that they take benefit of it with making complaints.

Why there is a need of reporting particulars of expenditure and incomes?

The Government Officers are recruited and selected very sincerely. It is also a well-known fact that everyone works very sincerely with absolute integrity. In such cases, why maintain accounts and report the same? When Senior Authorities have trust in the functions of Subordinate Officers then why maintain accounts and prepare the reports? All monetary transactions are recorded in Cash Book and even compiled at the level of Accountant General to check the irregularities. There are heads for booking of each expense, strict guidelines to categorize as per guidelines of Accounting Rules; so that it can be reported in the State Assembly or Parliament whenever public representatives ask for the information. How many payments are made for Salaries? How much is being spent on Education or Health or Legal Services or any other public service? How much amount is realized from income tax or GST or fines and penalties etc.? How much tax and non-tax revenue is being utilized by the Government?

Audit of money utilized in Government:

No doubt, the primary aim of the Government is public welfare and the public services are rendered without expectation of any profit out of the welfare activities. Since the money is collected from the public by the imposition of taxes, it is required to verify whether the money is utilized as per rules or not. Transparency and accountability in financial records is the duty of Head of Departments (HoDs) and for this purpose, generally the Finance Department issues instructions and guidelines including the economy in expenditure, budgetary control, timely submission of returns, and also compliance of each rule in office. For this purpose, it is expected to adopt well-organized accounting systems with provisions for checks to ensure financial control.

Where the money is utilized?

Whether it is personal life or official, the money can be utilized on two things either on consumption expenditure / procuring services or making of investments / procuring goods. In Government, the records are maintained with proper debit and credit; however, the style is to book the expenses or credit the revenues in prescribed heads. These booking of expenses and crediting of incomes finally form the monthly accounts then annual accounts for the decision making of the Administrators / Ministers. It does not matter whether the Single Entry System is used or Double Entry System, whether the accounts are manually maintained or on computers, whether the base of identifying transactions is cash basis or accrual basis. It matters whether there is transparency and fairness in maintaining the accounts or not. Wherever money is utilized, that should be audited by the Auditors and irregularities should be traced with proper action against the persons found guilty. 

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Hindi Version:

सरकारी कार्यालय में धन का मामला

 -डॉ. ललित कुमार

 सरकारी कार्यालय में जनता के पैसे का उपयोग:

 सरकारी नौकरी में आने के बाद, प्रत्येक कर्मचारी से आधिकारिक कार्यों में पूर्ण सत्यनिष्ठा अपनाने की अपेक्षा की जाती है। जो भी कार्य सौंपा जाता है; यह माना जाता है कि कर्मचारी द्वारा, धन या वित्तीय संसाधनों के उपयोग का उचित लेखा-जोखा रखा जाए। सरकारी लेखा नियम, 1990 कार्यालय में उपयोग किए गए संसाधनों के उचित प्रतिनिधित्व के लिए लेखा प्रणाली को अपनाने के लिए मार्गदर्शन करते है। सरकारी नौकरी में आने से पहले, एक कर्मचारी व्यक्तिगत धन या माता-पिता के धन का उपयोग कर रहा होता है और शायद खर्चे फालतू भी हो, लेकिन  सरकारीधन का उपयोग करते समय, यह अपेक्षा की जाती है कि निर्णय विभिन्न नियमों, निर्देशों, और सरकार के निर्देशके अनुसार लिए जाएं।जबकि निजी जीवन में खर्च किए गए धन का लेखा जोखा रखना अनिवार्य नहीं होता। निजी जिंदगी में पैसे खर्च करो या निवेश, सदुपयोग करो या दुरुपयोग, व्यक्ति पर उंगली उठाने वाला कोई नहीं है, लेकिन सरकार में धन का उपयोग करने के मामले में, ऐसे नियम और निर्देश हैं जो कर्मचारियों की ओर से अनियमितताओं को साबित कर सकते हैं, अधिकारियों / अधिकारियों की अनियमितताओं का पता लगाने के लिए सरकारी कार्यालयों के व्यावसायिक मामलों की जानकारी लेने वाले आरटीआई कार्यकर्ता हैं ऐसे लोग हैं जो किसी भी कर्मचारी द्वारा किसी भी गलती की प्रतीक्षा कर रहे हैं इसलिए कि वे शिकायत करके इसका लाभ उठाएं।

 व्यय और आय के विवरण की रिपोर्टिंग की आवश्यकता क्यों है?

 सरकारी अधिकारियों की भर्ती की जाती है और उन्हें बहुत ईमानदारी से चुना जाता है। यह भी एक सर्वविदित तथ्य है कि हर कोई पूरी ईमानदारी के साथ काम करता है।

जब सभी ईमानदार हैं तो हर मामलों में, खातों का रखरखाव और उसकी रिपोर्ट क्यों करें? जब वरिष्ठ अधिकारियों को अधीनस्थ अधिकारियों के कार्यों पर भरोसा है तो लेखों

का रखरखाव और रिपोर्ट क्यों तैयार करें? सभी मौद्रिक लेनदेन को कैश बुक में दर्ज किया जाता है और यहां तक ​​कि अनियमितताओं की जांच के लिए महालेखाकार के स्तर पर लेखों को संकलित किया जाता है। प्रत्येक व्यय की बुकिंग के लिए उपयुक्त हेड हैं, लेखांकन नियमों के दिशानिर्देशों के अनुसार वर्गीकृत करने के लिए सख्त दिशानिर्देश हैं; ताकि जब भी जन प्रतिनिधि सूचना मांगे तो राज्य विधानसभा या संसद में इसकी सूचना दी जा सके। वेतन के लिए कितने भुगतान किए जाते हैं? शिक्षा या स्वास्थ्य या कानूनी सेवाओं या किसी अन्य सार्वजनिक सेवा पर कितना खर्च किया जा रहा है? आयकर या जीएसटी या जुर्माना और दंड आदि से कितनी राशि की वसूली होती है? सरकार द्वारा कितने कर और गैर-कर राजस्व का उपयोग किया जा रहा है? सबका विवरण तैयार किया जा सकता है।

 सरकार में उपयोग किए गए धन की लेखापरीक्षा:

 निस्संदेह, सरकार का प्राथमिक उद्देश्य लोक कल्याण है और लोक सेवाओं को कल्याणकारी गतिविधियों से बिना किसी लाभ की अपेक्षा के प्रदान किया जाता है। चूंकि जनता पर कर लगाकर धन एकत्र किया जाता है, इसलिए यह सत्यापित करना आवश्यक है कि धन का उपयोग नियमों के अनुसार किया गया है या नहीं। वित्तीय अभिलेखों में पारदर्शिता और जवाबदेही विभागाध्यक्षों (एचओडी) का कर्तव्य है और इस उद्देश्य के लिए, आम तौर पर वित्त विभाग व्यय, बजटीय नियंत्रण, समय पर रिटर्न जमा करने, और प्रत्येक नियम के अनुपालन में मितव्ययिता सहित निर्देश और दिशानिर्देश जारी करता है। 

प्रत्येक कार्यालय से इस उद्देश्य के लिए, वित्तीय नियंत्रण सुनिश्चित करने के लिए उचित प्रावधानों के साथ सुव्यवस्थित लेखा प्रणाली को अपनाने की उम्मीद है।

 पैसे का उपयोग कहाँ किया जाता है?

 चाहे वह निजी जीवन हो या आधिकारिक, धन का उपयोग दो चीजों पर किया जा सकता है या तो उपभोग व्यय / सेवाओं की खरीद या निवेश / सामान की खरीद पर किया जा सकता है। सरकार में, अभिलेखों को उचित डेबिट और क्रेडिट के साथ रखा जाता है; हालाँकि, शैली खर्चों को बुक करने या राजस्व को निर्धारित शीर्षों में जमा करने की है। व्यय की ये बुकिंग और आय जमा करने से अंतत: प्रशासकों / मंत्रियों के निर्णय लेने के लिए मासिक खाते और फिर वार्षिक खाते बनते हैं। इससे कोई फर्क नहीं पड़ता कि सिंगल एंट्री सिस्टम का उपयोग किया जाता है या डबल एंट्री सिस्टम, चाहे खातों को मैन्युअल रूप से या कंप्यूटर पर बनाए रखा जाता हो, चाहे लेनदेन की पहचान का आधार नकद आधार या प्रोद्भवन आधार हो। यह मायने रखता है कि खातों को बनाए रखने में पारदर्शिता और निष्पक्षता है या नहीं। जहां कहीं भी धन का उपयोग किया जाता है, उसका लेखा परीक्षकों द्वारा ऑडिट किया जाना चाहिए और दोषी पाए जाने वाले व्यक्तियों के खिलाफ उचित कार्रवाई के साथ अनियमितताओं का पता लगाया जाना चाहिए।.

*Copyright © 2021 Dr. Lalit Kumar. All rights reserved.

This article is written by Dr. Lalit Kumar Setia; a renowned author and trainer. The article was published on 26th August, 2021 and last updated on 4^th September, 2021. The writer can be contacted on lalitkumarsetia@gmail.com 

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Uniformity in Accounts of Government Organizations in India

Uniformity in Accounts of Government Organizations in India

-Dr. Lalit Kumar Setia

The concern of bringing efficiency in functions of Government Organizations always remains at the top in the eyes of administrators. Most of the time, the parliamentary committees observed and pointed out to standardize the accounts of organizations utilizing the amount from Consolidated Fund of India / State / UT. The Government with a focus on ‘Minimum Government – Maximum Governance’, is making the administrators and policymakers accountable to the public for the best utilization of the public resources.

Need of Unified Accounting Standards

The Public Sector Financial Reporting is specifically to support the decisions of Administrators and the research function of think-tanks of the nation. The information based upon the unified accounting standards is used to decide where to supply the public resources or invest the amount for making the public services accessible to the citizens.

The cost of processing information to each stakeholder can easily be reduced by framing unified Accounting Standards and it will also improve the functioning of ministries of the central government, state governments, and all government organizations of India. The reports of the Auditor General always gave emphasis upon improving public financial management and that is possible only through Government Process Re-engineering (GPR) by removing the processes which have no relevance today but are still in the system and adding the new processes to streamline the functions with the use of latest technological tools.

The quality of Government Financial Reporting depends upon the unified Accounting Standards and fixing of responsibilities and accountabilities is also possible only after improving the quality of financial reporting. There is a need for research by collecting structured questionnaires on ‘how decisions are being taken in Central and State Government on various Financial Issues and how the decisions can be taken with the help of implementing software, artificial intelligence, and big data analytical tools in Government?’. The data should be analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical methods to find out the facts and thereafter recommend how the performance of Governments be improved with taking new initiatives and how to fix the financial accountability of decision-makers and those who are implementing the decisions so that the right decision is implemented in the right way without any delay.

Management of Public Assets

The public sector delivery system basically supports the public in getting the public services at the right time, in the right quantum, and without making any grievance. The Central and State Governments are making the processes modified but still, there is a need to manage the public assets more sincerely. From Budgeting to Auditing, the Government Accounting setup is to manage the public assets.

In India, it is found in various research reports that due to lack of standard reporting systems, where the money is appropriated in budget and where it is actually spent or lost or misappropriated, cannot be traced easily. Today the Government is taking steps to privatize the Government Organizations’ work, decentralized the functions to the extent possible, incorporate the quality and output-oriented systems with the help of NITI Ayog, a well-known think-tank of India but the accounting standards are still not with the unified structure of accounts in Government organizations.

What will happen if a Unified Structure of Accounts is adopted?

Whether the Government wants to experience lesser revenue shortfalls in tax collection or not? Whether the Government wants to use Audit recommendations to improve the Financial Functions of Government Organizations or not? Whether the Government wants to automate Accounting to trace irregularities or not? Whether the Government requires to take steps to reduce the misappropriation of public money or not? Obviously, each Government wants these things to realize, but how? Each of these things requires a Unified Structure of Accounts in Government Organizations.

The Usability of Accounting Reports for Decisions in Government

Financial Accounting is concerned with measuring the financial consequences of transactions and events, and it improves the comprehensiveness and transparency in financial functions of the organizations.

It is very easy to say that the unified structure of Government Accounts may sort out the problems of misusing public assets. But it is must understand that the use of Accounting Reports in making decisions in Government so that rational decisions based on scientific facts be taken, it is must incorporate the Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs) for each financial decision based on Government Accounting. The countries of the United States, Finland, Russia, etc; have incorporated the SoPs for decisions. In the United States, the GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) are used in organizations particularly to ensure uniformity in the accounts of organizations. Multi-national companies (MNCs) with a presence in multiple countries, follow the IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) to disclose the aspects of finances such as assets, liabilities, revenues, expenses, etc.

Why not be in India? Yes, it should be.

The rational and scientific decisions are possible based on the following facts, which will come from the unified structure of Government organizations such as ‘Valuation of Inventories in each Government Organization’, ‘Cash Flow Statements of the Government Organizations’, ‘Factors behind income or loss of each Government Organizations’, ‘Revenue and Capital Receipts of each Government Organization’, and ‘Fixed Assets, Borrowing Costs as per Cost Accounting Records’, etc. 

*Copyright © 2021 Dr. Lalit Kumar. All rights reserved.

This article is written by Dr. Lalit Kumar Setia; a renowned author and trainer. The article was published on 12th August, 2021 and last updated on 4^th September, 2021. The writer can be contacted on lalitkumarsetia@gmail.com 

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Accounting Financial Procedures in Haryana Government

 Accounting Financial Procedures in Haryana Government

-Dr. Lalit Kumar Setia

There are three types of funds were maintained:

1.    Consolidated Fund:

All the receipts and payments which are done through the treasury, are come under the Consolidated Fund. Only powers are granted to withdraw the money, as per the sanctioning authority. The budget is used for taking the approval of the public/citizens through their representatives. The budget document is prepared every year and submitted to the FD by 31^st December of the previous year. For example for FY 2022-23, the proposed budget should be submitted by 31^st December 2021. After getting the budget proposal from all departments, it is presented in the assembly/parliament and the amount is allocated by 31^st March of the last year. In the field office, firstly BM-10 is prepared. Thereafter BM-2 is prepared. The DDO (HoO) will send the BM-2 to the Budget Controlling Officer (Mediators between HoO and HoD) èBudget Controlling Authority (Head of Department) èFD

The FD will prepare the consolidated form of The budget proposal and the same is converted to the Budget Speech. After allocation of the budget, the same is communicated from top to bottom.

FM èFDèBCAèBCOèDDO.

How to spend sanctioned Budget:

Seek Administrative and Financial Sanction / approval.

In each department, there are delegated powers for sanction of expenditure.

HoO – 5000 (for recurring exp.) and 10000 (for non-recurring exp.)

HoD – 50000 (for recurring exp.) and 100000 (for non-recurring exp)

FD – Full Power

If the amount of expenditure is more than the the capacity of sanctioning authority then the file will be sent to the next competent authority. In such a case, if the amount of expenditure is bifurcated into two amounts for taking the sanction at the lower level and spend the same. Then it will be considered financial irregularity, known as Split-Up Case.

Delegation of Financial Power

To speed the work of the office, generally the HoD delegates its financial powers to the HoO or Mediators.

Similarly, the FD also enhanced the powers of HoD with delegation. For example:

Suppose FD increased the power of HoD to 500000 from 100000.

HoD increased the power of HoO to 100000 from 10000.

Can HoD increase the powers of HoO further up to his delegated powers?

No. The rule is “The delegated powers cannot be further delegated”.

èAfter getting the approval of the expenditure to be done, from the competent authority

Firstly prepare the estimated expenditure in figures either with the help of approved sources or GeM or amount spent in earlier purchases.

Procure Goods / Services / Works.

Mode of Procurement:

èApproved Source èIf the items are available with the approved sources then we have to procure from them. In such as no audit objection can be raised towards the payment authority. The list of approved sources is available on https://dsndharyana.gov.in/

The Approved Source can be denied or by-pass on three parameters:

a.     The supply of the item is not available with the approved source. (No Objection Certificate / Non Availability Certificate).

b.    In case, directions from the HoD received or approval is taken from HoD to procure the items from market.

c.     In case of emergency, when there is no time to approach Approved Source and permission is granted by the Competent Authority to procure directly from the market.

Procurement from Market (Mode of Procurement in Market)

Online – Government e-Marketplace – GeM

·       Direct Purchase  - Up to 25,000

·       L-1 Purchase – 25001 to 500000

·       Online Bidding / Reverse Auction – Above Rs. 500000

Offline – Physical Market where orders are put-up in physical mode.

·       Without Quotation – Up to 10000

·       With Quotation – 10001 to 100000

·       e-Tender – Above 100000

For Direct Purchase / Without QuotationèNo Comparison is required.

For L-1 Purchase / With Quotation èAt least three prices are required.

For Online Bidding / RA / e-Tender è At least three bidders are required.

Spend the money and procure the goods.

The goods will be received by the Store in-charge / Care Taker (Store). He will inspect the items with the specifications given in the bill. If the items are not as per specifications, no entry in the stock register will be made and the items will be returned.

After finding the accurate specifications, he will accept the items and record the same in the Store register/stock register.

The bill will be sent to the Finance branch for payment. The voucher will be taken upon the concerned file and approval of payment will be taken.

After taking the approval of payment, the payment will be made to the supplier.

The items will be used to the concerned who demanded earlier.

2.    Contingency Fund

The expenditure which is unforeseen at the time of budget and required to be spent in the office, are met from the Contingency fund which is maintained at the disposal of the governor of the state. It is basically an imprest account.

3.    Public Accounts

The expenditure which is neither related to Consolidated Fund nor related to Contingency fund, is maintained in Public Accounts.

GIS, PPF, NPS, GPF, EPF etc.

For public accounts, there is an authority to monitor the expenditure which is independently allowed to create wealth.

The payments from these accounts are made as per the norms of the Government.

Payments and Receipts in Haryana Government:

èDigital Vouchers – We are supposed to scan and upload all the vouchers related to payment. In e-Billing (Maker Login).

èPayments are done directly in the account of the recipient with e-Billing UCP mode.

èThe Maker login is used to make the bill and the Checker login is used to verify the bill and the TO login is used to process the payment in the account of the payee.

èThere are two types of payments – Pay Bills (Basic Pay, DA, LTC, Arrears) and Other Bills (Medical Reimbursement, TA, Contingency Bills Payment, Personal Ledger Account related payments, and GPF Advances).

èChecker is generally DDO and the maker is a government employee supposed to support the checker for making bills.

èThe government has issued instructions for the non-maintenance of the bank account or in other words, without the permission of FD, an office cannot open and maintain a bank account for its payments or receipts.

Receipts in Haryana government:

e-GRAS è

there is a checker login for the DDOs and no maker login. The whole responsibility w.r.t. timely deposit of revenues and cash collections lie with the DDO.

In e-GRAS è

Citizen Login – 

Any person can deposit an amount directly in the receipts head of government and that receipt will be used for the entry in the cash book by the departments.

Checker Login - Checker password of e-Billing is used for it.

Next Page - Responsibilities of Head of Accounting Organizations

https://drlalitsetia.blogspot.com/2021/08/responsibilities-of-head-of-accounting.html

Computerized Accounting Systems

Computerized Accounting Systems

-Dr. Lalit Kumar

Imagine your Financial and Accounting work without computers!

Manual entry of each transaction in accounting books, preparing ledgers and then deriving of financial statements. After that analysis the financial records for making of managerial decisions. It seems very complicated now. Before computers in our life, the work of accounting and finance was really difficult. 

What is program do?

With the help of computers and information technology, programs and modules are formed to make the work easier. Deriving instant information for making fast decisions possible only by programming. In Haryana, the financial work is done with e-Billing, e-Challan, Online Budget, Human Resource Management System (HRMS), and Online Diary Management System; each module is the result of program of National Informatics Centre (NIC).

Reporting as a key aspect of outputs

The programs, modules, applications are providing outputs and the outputs are making work easier. The standardized format of outputs is kept in mind while forming a program. The programmers use languages to project a specific program. In Finance and Accounting, the Excel software is used to model the spreadsheet for doing a specific work. 

Convenience in Functions

Whatever you do in finance and accounting, from budgeting to auditing and reporting, it is need of the hour to understand how information technology and computers are playing role to make the work easier.

From time to time Workshops are organized on “Computerized Accounting Systems”. 

Objective:

The main objective of the above the course is to build and enhance the capacities of officers in adopting and using the Computerized Accounting Systems (CAS) in Government Departments and Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs). This course is intended for Financial and Administrative Officers, Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs), Accounts Officers, Section Officers, and Officer/officials in-charge of Financial Operations in Government Offices.

For example, in Haryana, the Haryana The Institute of Public Administration (HIPA) is approached for organizing the training on Computerized Accounting Systems. 

Outcome of Training

By the end of this course, participants become able to:

• Describe and Use Various Accounting Systems Manual and Computerized, Single Entry and Double Entry Based, Cash and Accrual Basis Accounting etc.

•  Adopt and Use Computerized Accounting Systems (CAS) in Government.

•  Maintaining Accounts and Inventory in Computerized Accounting Software as per requirements in offices.

Preparing Utilization Certificate of Grants

Every year the Head of Departments in The government provides grants to their concerned field offices for utilization. The Finance Department of a State is entrusted for proper utilization of the grants and for this purpose, the proper audit is conducted at their level. Wherever the doubt of mis-utilization was realized, an audit team approached and clear their doubts with the help of raising audit objections.

Sanctioning of Grants to Departments:

The grants are sanctioned for the proper functioning of the departments of Government and the money is used through treasuries of the state. Without getting the utilization certificate of the earlier grant, no further grant is released. Even the utilization certificates of each grant are properly analyzed by the officers of the finance department to make sure that the grants are used for the same purposes for which the demands were raised earlier by the departments. The Finance Departments are very strict to ensure the proper utilization of public money most of which, collected with the help of Income Tax and Goods & Services Tax (GST) in India.

Audit Function in Government

The Comptroller Auditor General (CAG) is entrusted with auditing the accounts of each Government office in India. For this purpose, each state constituted Accountant General Department which supervises the same function as CAG performs at a central level. The Grants are required to be utilized in a time-bound manner for which the Head of Departments are entrusted to take work from the Drawing and Disbursing Officers of the State.

Role of Training in making Proper Utilization:

In case, the departments lack the capacities for ensuring the proper utilization of funds, the compliance of rules with computerizing accounting systems can be ensured. In case, the departments use computerized accounting systems, the utilization certificates will be available as per the real-time status of the grants. The State Training Institutions (STIs) are working for it.

*Copyright © 2020 Dr. Lalit Kumar. All rights reserved.

Next Page - Functions of Accounts Branch in Government

https://drlalitsetia.blogspot.com/2019/07/functions-accounts-branch-Government.html 

https://drlalitsetia.blogspot.com/2021/08/responsibilities-of-head-of-accounting.html

https://managerialadministration.blogspot.com/2018/10/managerial-finance-and-control.html

https://managerialadministration.blogspot.com/2018/10/e-finance-applications-using-integrated.html 

https://drlalitsetia.blogspot.com/2021/07/accounting-financial-procedures-in.html