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

Governance in Delivering Public Services

Governance in Delivering Public Services

In an earlier article, we studied how Governance is being expected on risks of RTI activists. 

In India, the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) ensures that the real estate developers and sellers sell plots and apartments after their registration with the real estate regulator. But the real estate developers start launching their projects and even start booking the sale of the units without registering the project with the RERA. 

For example, in Gurugram Haryana, sector 102A the developers found booking plots and apartments in the unregistered projects. The developers took the money either in cash or cheque and also allot the booking of the unit to the customer without registering the project and it is totally illegal because the project is not registered and permission is also not sought from the RERA. The RERA is empowered to impose huge penalties on the developers for such wrong practices i.e. up to Rs. 12 Crores against the promotor. 

The RERA Act states that no real estate agent can participate in the project's advertisement, marketing, or sale without getting registered with the RERA. 

The Government is responsible and entrusted to deliver public services for providing basic amenities i.e. Transportation, Education, Health, Water Supply, Roads, Electricity, Legal Services, etc. In case, the services are being provided without discrimination as per the rules of the Government; it is considered Good Governance but in case, the services are not being provided on time as per the needs of the citizens and the system is affected by corruption; then there is lack of Good Governance. Every nation and every state faces various challenges in ensuring Good Governance in public services. The systems to address the grievances are framed to sort out the disputes among citizens and government offices with regard to general issues. Even the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) and Privatization of the public services are used to reduce the quantum of resources in the hands of the Government. The challenge to streamline the system of delivering public services is very complicated sometimes.

Delivering Public Services:

It is well known that corruption and governance are two tools under the regulation of a ruler. 

For the scalability of the public sector services, it is required to move from Governance to Good Governance fixing responsibilities with ensuring transparency; thereafter, from Good Governance to e-Governance adopting Software-based products. The Haryana Government is doing the same. This digital governance sector is as untapped opportunity for the new age entrepreneurs.

(i) Establishing Public Institutions for Delivering Public Services:

The basic solution to ensure good governance in delivering public services is to formulate public institutions with mandates to deliver public services. The government set up various types of organizations to deliver the public services such as Departments for Electricity, Water, Roads, Irrigation, Sanitation, Railways, Bus Services, etc. in the countries function to deliver the public services.

The Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs) are formulated for delivering the public services in each organization. The SoP is basically a set of step-by-step processes to carry out the organizational functions by the officers or executives. The SoP fixes the duties and responsibilities of each executive and also provides the mechanism to fix the inefficiencies at the executives’ level for delivering their best contribution. In this way, each organization works as per SoP and achieves the aims and objectives with efficiency, quality of service delivery, and best enforcement of rules and regulations.

In the pandemic times, the District Education Officer fixed the responsibility of School Principals for finding Covid or Corona positive students in the schools.

The Government ensures the reward to good performing executives and punishment to bad non-performing executives by framing policies, and rules, and giving instructions. The rule of ‘higher incentives’ and ‘cut in salaries’ work for reward and punishment to the executives.

The Educational Schools, Hospitals, Electricity Generation and Distribution, and Public Works Departments are established for ensuring delivering of each public service.

However, the management of the organizations become a major challenge in such case, and corruption is required to be fixed at all levels of the organizations.

(ii) Privatization of Public Sector Organizations:

In most of cases, it becomes difficult to provide good public services due to corruption and non-fixation of responsibility in public institutions. In such a case, the Government decides to privatize the public sector organizations.

When the Government is not much empowered to collect the taxes for funding the organizations delivering public services; the decision is taken to privatize the organizations i.e. to transfer the ownership and management of the public sector organizations into the hands of private players i.e. corporate sector’s companies with a particular procedure.

However, the Government regulates and controls the private sector organizations to ensure the availability of the best services to the citizens.

(iii) Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Projects:

When Government requires to utilize the capacities of private sector organizations but to a small extent, only in areas where it is unable to deliver the public services; then the mode of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) is preferred.

The PPP model is particularly used to procure goods and services of the private sector organizations through a transparent procedure. The Governance to deliver public services to the end-users is monitored without differentiating the public sector organizations with or without PPPs. The role of regulatory bodies becomes more important to ensure good governance.

Before adopting PPPs in public services; a tool of public sector comparator is used to estimate the cost of delivering public services in the hands of the Government and thereafter, the feasibility studies are carried out to decide whether to use PPP or not. Only when it seems feasible and economical to deliver public services through PPP mode; the PPPs are formulated and governance is ensured.

(iv) Communitization of Public Services:

The Government decides to transfer the ownership and management of public institutions to the communities for better delivery of public services. It happens when the Government wants to get the participation of communities, in the utilization of public resources. It is well known that the Non-Government Organizations and Communities at the large level, show interest to come ahead for delivering public services.

Through communitization, the governance is improved up to the grass root levels by sharing the government assets with the communities. The reforms for more efficient delivery of public services; are implemented with the support of communities working at the ground level among the users i.e. citizens including beneficiaries of various schemes of the Government.

Recently, the communization of public services is used in Nagaland and it is found that it brought major improvements in the Governance system and reduced the inefficiencies to a great extent. Even the communities responsible for delivering education services applied the ‘no work no pay’ slogan to stop the unauthorized absence of teachers from the schools. Similarly, in health services, the Nagaland constituted Health Committees to strengthen the governance system and ensure the presence of doctors, and the availability of medicines in a better way. The communization of electricity services sorted out the practical problems of high Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) Losses including distribution losses by the public without the involvement of the police administration.

*Copyright © 2019 Dr. Lalit Kumar. All rights reserved.

You might also be interested in the following:

1. Functions of Officers of PWD

2. Untold story of IL&FS

3. How to save money from being covered under taxes (Tax Saving Options)?

4. Parents in nurturing Children

5. Viruses and Infections

6. Let’s kill the pain without using painkillers

7. Don’t be afraid of Higher Uric Acid Level indeed adopt these remedies

8. Types of Tenders in Government

Procurement of Goods in Government

Procurement of Goods and Condemnation 
of Un-serviceable Stores

-Dr. Lalit Kumar

1. Procurement of Goods in Government

In earlier article, we studied how tender and Central Vigilance Commission are concerned with each other. In procuring goods and services, there are rules generally followed by the procuring authorities in Government organizations. The rules can easily be understood by categorizing the purchases in various types like, (i) Purchase Without Quotation, (ii) Purchase with Quotations, (iii) Tender System, (iv) Online Procurement.

(i) Purchase Without Quotation:

The small purchases cannot afford the cost of tendering. Therefore, the authorities should decide to procure the small purchases without quotation or tender. The limit for the purchases without quotation should be fixed and such limit should be compliance strictly to avoid the financial irregularities in procurement. In General Financial Rules or State Government’s Financial Rules, the limit should be cited properly, however the limit can be revised by issuing the circular or notification by the competent authorities. In such purchases, the procuring authority certifies, “I, …… am personally satisfied that these goods purchased are of the requisite quality and specification and have been purchased from a reliable supplier at a reasonable price.”

In Government of India or central government department, the limit of such purchases is up to Rs. 25000 in each occasion. In Haryana Government, the limit of such purchases is up to Rs. 10000 in each occasion.

(ii) Purchase with Quotation:

In case of purchase amounting more than the specified limit of ‘purchase without quotations’; then quotation can be used up to a specified limit and in case such limit crossed, tender system is adopted for procurement of goods and services. In purchase with quotation or tender; it is required to frame a committee of at least three officers. The committee firstly survey the market and check the rates of the goods to be procured. The quality standards and specifications are also determined. In order to identify appropriate supplier with ensuring Economy, Efficiency, and Effectiveness in procurement; quotations from at least three vendors or suppliers are collected. After collecting the quotations, a comparative statement is prepared and jointly certified by the committee members with comments from which supplier it is economical to procure the goods. 

In Government of India or Central Government Departments, the limit for such purchases is for amount within the limits of Rs. 25001 to Rs. 100000. In Haryana Government, the limit of such purchases is for amount within the limits of Rs. 10001 to Rs. 100000.

2. Condemnation and Disposal of Store Articles

The Financial Rules contain the provisions for disposal of unserviceable store articles or surplus stores. In Haryana Government, the Punjab Financial Rules are followed. It is given in rules that the Director, Supplies and Disposal Haryana is entrusted for condemnation and disposal of store articles however in case of vehicles, the office of Deputy Commissioner constitute Condemnation Committee for disposal of unserviceable vehicles.

(a) Disposal of Goods other than Vehicles:

In every quarter, the Head of Departments prepare a statement of unserviceable articles or surplus stores and forward the same to Department of Supplies and Disposal on 1^st Jan, 1^st April, 1^st July, and 1^st October of each year.

The book value of the stores decides at which level the goods can be disposed through auction. If the book value is up to Rs. 10,000 then the goods are disposed at the level of Department but if the book value is more than Rs. 10,000 then a statement of the goods with value sent to the Department of Supplies and Disposal and put up to a Condemnation Board consisting for five persons including representative of indenting department, one from Department of Supplies and Disposal, One from the Deputy Commissioner office of the concerned District, and two from the Government Departments depending upon the nature of goods in question or goods to be disposed through auction i.e. may be from Irrigation Department, Public Health, Prisons, Police, Agriculture, Industries, Health Services, Forests etc.

Since the statement of goods to be disposed, received in each quarter; the board members meet in the month of Jan, Apr, Jul, and October and fix the reserve prices of the store articles in the inspection report and the report is sent by the indenting department to the concerned Administrative Department for declaring the stores unserviceable or Surplus for disposal. After getting the approval of Administrative Department, the indenting department send the case to Department of Supplies and Disposal (DSND). The DSND refer the case to Department of Industries for auction.

Auction of Unserviceable or Surplus Stores:

The DSND invites tenders for auction of the stores. However, the sanction is required to Department of Industries if the book value of the stores is more than 25,000. If it is less than Rs. 25,000 then no sanction required from Department of Industries.

(b) Disposal of Vehicles:

The Deputy Commissioners at District Level under their chairmanship with the help of committees including one representative of indenting organization, Sub-Divisional Officer (Mechanical) from PWD (B&R) Department, and Works Manager of Haryana Roadways. An auction notice is published in the press and the vehicles are brought to the venue of auction at least one hour before the scheduled time of auction. The GST also collected (in addition) to the auction price settled by the bidders.

Auction of Vehicles:

An amount for Rs. 500 collected as earnest money from each bidder and the successful bidder requires to deposit 25% of the highest bid on the spot and the remaining 75% is required to be deposited within 72 hours. After getting the full payment, the delivery of vehicle is made with Sales order to the successful bidder.

In next article, it is detailed how tenders are floated and types of tenders in Government.

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

Government Interventions Work Temporarily

Government Interventions Work Temporarily

The Government intervenes to ensure economic development at higher rate but the interventions work temporarily. What to do for permanent solution to economic problems?

Each government intervenes through various measures of fiscal and monetary policy to ensure the economic development of their economy. The interventions improve the situation as per the desire of the government but not bring a permanent change. What can bring the permanent change and how policymakers of India can perform in today’s scenario?

The Control over Social Media Platforms in India:

The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 were formed and released by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in February, 2021. 
The Government gave three months time to compliance these rules to the Social Media intermediaries. There are seven major Social Media intermediaries in India i.e. Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, Koo, Sharechat, and LinkedIn. As per new norms, a resident of India would be Grievance Redressal Officer for timely resolutions of the grivances of the users of social media platforms. Further, a Chief Compliance Officer will also be appointed for ensuring compliance of IT Act and Rules and there will be a monthly compliance report be prepared with the details of complaints received and action taken. 
No doubt, the rules are challenged on basis of freedom of speech and expression in India, but keeping in view the national security many experts favoured to implement the Act and Rules. The fake news are affecting the life of common men and users of social media. There are many instances when abusive language is used on the social media and automatic system of complaints not worked properly to block or take action upon the persons responsible for it. The mob violence is also due to misuse of social media platforms. Now after receiving complaints, the technological companies have to remove the reported content within 24 hours. Even first originator of information will also be identified by the companies. However, the tracibility of such originators is really difficult and tedious task required to be done by the social media intermediaries that is why a few are hesitating to implement such rules. 
This intervention of Government will work to control the misuse of the social media platforms but at the same time will affect the free speech, which is a basic tenet of Indian Democracy.

Why it is bad to safeguard economy through interventions?

The intervention of central banks of countries to safeguard their currencies can work in appreciating or depreciating the value of the currencies but such changes are temporary. The issue of securities by the United States of America for appreciating the value of Dollar and in order to pay higher rate of returns upon issued securities, the USA has to perform for higher rate of return which will cost the economy and its citizens. Ultimately, the current account deficit (CAD) of the country will rise due to this particular step and to correct the situation, the USA’s Dollar will automatically depreciate. What can be the best strategy to improve the value of currency? How without any intervention, the currency can be appreciated or depreciated? The monetary and fiscal policies of the countries make temporary changes in the value of the currencies, then what can be done for bringing the permanent change? How China is competing with the world without making such interventions, is a lesson for the other countries.

In India, during 2018-19 and 2019-20, it is felt that the economic growth became stagnant and prices also started rising. Such condition of economy is known as "Stagflation". In such case, how Government intervene?

There was 7.35% rise in the consumer price during December 2019 due to rising prices of Onions, Potatoes etc; the temporary intervention to buy onions and selling through depots worked to control the inflation but it harm the 'free market conditions' and the business men suffered from losses due to lower sale of their procured onions. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) became under pressure to cut the rates for improving the liquidity in the economy but due to Stagflation and fears of inflation, was not able to cut the rates in February 2020. 

The Government has started to consider the supply side solutions to this problem of Stagflation and definitely there are chances to tackle this problem by encouraging manufacturers and service providers to increase their productivity and quantum of the services delivered.

Where to focus for improving the value of currency?

Let’s focus upon the fall in the value of rupee, why it is depreciated after the independence of the India? More the expenditure upon developmental or non-developmental functions of government, directly or indirectly depreciated the value of rupee. The productive work of entrepreneurs leading to more collection of taxes, increase in employment, reduction of poverty etc; also appreciated the value of rupee. Developed nations are more progressive because the citizens of nations are more comfortable to generate the employment opportunities and are working to perform better with their strategies without being worry to pay the taxes. While in developing nations, the rates of taxes are too high that the business men instead of putting their efforts to earn more, put more efforts to evade taxes with the help of Chartered Accountants (CAs). 

In September 2019, the GDP dropped to 6.3% which was lowest during the decade of 2010 to 2020. Thereafter, the Indian Economy witness the losses from Covid-19 impact and now in December 2020, the Kisan Movement further making the situation worst. 

In such circumstances, India is struggling to prepare for the war with the Pakistan and China to fight with terrorism. Obviously, the currency will further dropped and this time, India requires the support of economists to sit inside the NITI Aayog and frame a chart to boost the economic growth.
Continued.... <<Restricting Demand of Products and Services to contain Inflation is good or bad?>>

*Copyright © 2018 Dr. Lalit Kumar. All rights reserved. 
You might also be interested in reading the following:

1. Duties of a Clerk in Government Departments or Public Sector Entities  2. Social Responsibilities of Business  3. Effective Administration of Accounts - A solution to get rid of Economic Crimes  4. Untold story of IL&FS  5. Purchase Procedures including Government e-Marketplace and Combating Corruption 6. Government Accounting and Audit Mechanisms

Whether Indian Anti-Corruption Lokpal is Sufficient?

Whether Indian Anti-Corruption Lokpal is Sufficient?

By Dr. Lalit Kumar Setia |  @drlalitsetia  |  drlalitsetia@gmail.com  | Created Dec 05, 2017

Updated May 11, 2019

It is well known that the corruption is the primary hidden cause to various problems to the life of a common man. It is must to take pledge for not being involved in corrupt practices and the people in India under the governance inculcated by Prime Minister are taking the pledge with proud. Even the business environment is being framed to make a common man empowered to stop corruption to a great extent? But the moves to empower common man, are becoming barriers and hurdles for the Government employees in public sector organizations to deliver their best performance. The issue which is coming forward is, ‘What can an employee do to stay far from corrupt practices?’

Enactment of Anti-corruption Lokpal Act:

It is well known that combating corruption is a great political propaganda to score win-win position in elections and every political party includes it in manifesto to attract largest number of voters. Due to such commitments in manifesto, the ruling party is also making Anti-Corruption Lokpal Act to be proved a great tool for combating corruption. However, it will be too early to diagnose the impact of the Act. 

Former Supreme Court judge Pinaki Chandra Ghose may become India’s first Lokpal. 

Role of Social Activists:

The Social activist Anna Hazare alleged both ex. Prime Minister Sh. Manmohan Singh and present Prime Minister Sh. Narendra Modi for weakening the act by removing the provisions made to combat corruption like "Mandatory disclosure of property details of a government official".

The tools of Right to Information Act, Citizen Charter, and initiatives for e-Governance through Mega Mission Projects running around India, described on the website of "National Institute of Smart Governance" are also playing great roles in enforcement of Anti-Corruption initiatives. However, the new tool of Anti Corruption Lokpal Act will prove a great support in independent functioning of Lokayukta in each state of India.

Corruption and Goverance:

The issues of Nepotism and unnecessary interventions of politicians in the fair functioning of Government Officers  (like officers of Indian Administrative Service and Allied Services) will remain a challenge for next one decade. The fear of being transferred in remote areas and doing mal-practices to please politicians so that comfortable positions can be accomplished; will definitely benefit the politicians and senior Administrators. The industrialists will also remain active by using politicians for making a tool to get their work done with misuse of Government assets.

How to treat problem of Corruption?

The corruption is not a newly born disease and we know "older the disease, higher the  tenure and efforts required to be treated". If Lokpal also failed in India then also it will not be a surprise. There is need to introduce new initiatives by taking support of Information Technology in enforcement of Good and Electronic Governance.

*Copyright © 2018 Dr. Lalit Kumar. All rights reserved.

Corruption and Governance - Ethical Considerations

Corruption and Governance - Ethical Considerations

-Dr. Lalit Kumar

I am writing this content particularly to let others know and consider the connections of ethics and values in Governance and Mal-practices known as Corruption in the Systems. The goal of Government is to provide access to public services to each common man and for this purpose departments and organizations are set-up. Government is constantly improving the systems through ensuring Transparency, Governance, Quality, Responsiveness in the Systems. But there are always use, misuse or abuse of financial resources, administrative powers, and other authorities and interventions for private gains with abusing trust and intentional violation of duty (reference to Mostert S, Sitaresmi MN, Njuguna F, van Beers EJ, Kaspers GJ. Effect of corruption on medical care in low-income countries. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2012;58(3):325–6).

In other words, I may not be wrong if I put it as follows:

Corruption = f (Governance)

Corruption is the function of Governance. And

Governance = f (Ethics, Values)

Governance is the function of Ethics and Values.

Corruption and Governance:

Needless to say, the Government in every economy is committed to raise the level of Governance to combat corruption. It is fact that the Governance improves through transparency because, the transparency enables the authorities to grab the corrupt-practices and corrupt people and punish them as per the rules, regulations, and laws. The corruption is a great hurdle in the economic development and the decisions to control corruption i.e. anti-corruption efforts of public authorities improve prosperity, enhance security, and promote transparency. It is required to have a look at 'How Corruption is becoming an alarming issue and decisions are being taken to improve transparency in Governance Systems'.

How Mal-practices grow in the Public Sector Organizations:

There are different forms of corrupt practices resulted from unethical behaviours of the stake-holders of Public Sector Organizations such as absenteeism, bribery, informal payments to get work done, use of resources, access, and utilization of services etc.

Such mal-practices or modes of corruption directly and sometimes indirectly increases the financial burden on the poor households of the economy who are not enough capable to stand with the mal-practices for getting their works done and they further become poorer. The economic inequalities increase which led to crime, unemployment, regional disparities and other economic problems.

How Governance contain Mal-practices?

The Governance promotes transparency and fix the accountability, promotes citizen participation in public services (such as using Citizen Charter), initiatives for containing corruption (such as use of e-payments in Government), and Laws and Regulations of anti-corruption (such as Right to Information Act).

The Social Audit is also a good tool for identifying the corruption in Government organizations.

If good governance principles and structures are not in place, this provides greater opportunity for corruption. Corruption, in turn, can prevent good governance principles and structures from being put in place, or enforced. Violations of the principles of transparency, accountability and rule of law appear to be most closely associated with corruption. In the end, corruption and poor governance are security challenges which undermine democracy, the rule of law and economic development. (Reference to an Article on “Corruption and Bad Governance” in Anti-Corruption Module 2: Corruption and Good Governance of UNODC organization).

Fighting Corruptions with Inculcating Values and Ethical Considerations:

A Course on “Ethics and Values in Financial Administration” is framed particularly to inculcate the values, sensitize the officers for ethical considerations, never committing mis-conduct, and fight corruption at all levels of service delivery in the organizations. It is fact that in newspapers, we read most of the times that there are allegations of fraud and corruption and most of the times, the employees found guilty and suspended by the authorities. It is important to put in place the Standard Operating Procedures keeping in view Result oriented Frameworks, to prevent mal-practices and also to fix the accountability of the officers with enforcement mechanisms strong enough to contain the corrupt practices (if any).

Covid-19 Pandemic and Challenge of inculcating Ethics and Values:

With the pandemic of Covid-19, the expenses to contain it, and also to ensure fast economic activities within government organizations, the rules and regulations can be mis-used easily if Governance levels are low in the system. The corrupt activities can increase the wastage of resources, theft of store items and assets, and misuse of cash as well as other financial resources.

Course on Ethics and Values in Financial Administration:

Purpose

The main objective of the above course is to build and enhance the capacities of officers to ensure the compliance of Financial Rules, Ethics and Values in conduct of employees, and effective Financial Administration as per the latest directions of Government.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

•     Describe the role of Ethics and Values in the Conduct of Employees and ensuring the compliance.

•     Describe and ensure the compliance of Punjab Financial Rules including Cannons of Financial Proprieties.

•     Describe the rules for maintenance of Cash Book, utilization of Financial Resources, Use of e-Governance i.e. Online Budgeting, e-Billing and HRMS for Effective Financial Administration.

The topics which are to be covered include Ethics and Values in Financial Administration, Duties and Responsibilities of Finance Officers & DDOs, Governance and Financial Considerations at Workspace, Financial Rules for Cash Management, Ethics and Values in Administrative Functions, Financial Administration with Online Budgeting, e-Governance Using HRMS, e-Governance Using e-Billing, and FAQs for clarifying the doubts of the participants. 

Corruption and Governance in Countries:

Corruption and Governance in Countries

Pakistan:

In February, 2019 Shahbaz Sharif, a political leader of Pakistan indicted by an accountability court for Rs. 1400 crores due to corruption in a housing project. The Pakistan's ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif appeared before an anti-graft court and faced trials in corruption cases. 

India:

Indian Government adopted demonetization and use of information technology without keeping in mind the demographic profile of citizens of India. The Niti Aayog is hiring around 65 odd young professionals (YPs) to assist it in framing policies of Governance more strategically. Due to decisions of GST, Indians suffered less trade (immediately after the enforcement of Goods and Services Tax). The decision of Demonetization suddenly inable the Indians to use their own deposited money and they stand in queue outside banks for the withdraw of new currency notes. This all happened to get rid of corruption.

Corruption and Governance in Indian Banking Sector: 

It is fact that the number of fraud cases in India increased with involving the banking sector and the country faced corruption from the reputed people involved in trade and business at higher levels in the country. The source of such frauds was loans provided by the banks and use of ‘Letter of Credit (LCs)’, Letter of Undertaking, and Letter of Acceptance i.e. ‘Off-Balance Sheet Items’.

In order to grab such practices, the rules pertaining to such items made strict and legal actions initiated to the people who proved guilty in spite of their departure from the country.

United States of America:

The President of United States is discouraging foreigners to be settled there by making the rules of Visa stricter. He also involved in trade war to expand the exports of economy and reduce the trade deficit. No doubt, the efforts have been made to increase the trade of Americans and to raise their standards of living. It also increased the transparency and governance by use of information technology in public systems.

China:

China is known for its exports in various countries and during last three decades, it expanded its trade in entire world. The policy of ‘Made in China’ and domestic production of the economy is too high to spread its products and services around the world. The policy decisions are implemented with transparency and accountability with strict rules.

Saudi Arabia:

The Saudi Arabia’s king (Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince) arrested Saudi Arabia's royals, ministers and investors in an anti-corruption purge. The strict rules to combat corruption and action towards corrupt people in spite of their strong roots, made the economy comes into light of the nations for its bold decisions.

Maldives:

In February, 2019 the Maldives court ordered to arrest former president, Abdulla Yameen, for allegations of money laundering. The allegations were in respect of receiving a sum of $1 million government money, through a private company.

Overall, the corruption includes the illegal and immoral activities and it is a sign of weak governance.

Conclusion:

No doubt, the authorities and power in the hands of rulers made them stronger. The use of power either in promoting corruption or in combating corruption through Governance; is always the choice of the rulers. Most of the nations moved to ‘zero tolerance’ towards corruption. The big industrialists faced challenges due to tightening of Good Governance initiatives around the world and the initiatives are continuously increasing with the use of technology.

*Copyright © 2020 Dr. Lalit Kumar. A few rights reserved. Use this information in the public interest.

This content is written by Dr. Lalit Kumar Setia; a renowned author and trainer. He completed his Doctorate in Commerce from Kurukshetra University Kurukshetra and MBA in Information Technology from GJU, Hisar. He also wrote two books, 15 research papers, and organized more than 200 Training Courses during his working period since 2006 in Haryana Institute of Public Administration, Gurugram. The article was published on 2020. The writer can be contacted on lalitkumarsetia@gmail.com 

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