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