Financial Procedures in Government

Financial Procedures in Government

-Dr. Lalit Kumar Setia*

The issue of ensuring compliance of financial procedures in Government Organizations is not a new emerging issue. It is seen everyday or at least every-week, in the newspapers regarding financial irregularities, embezzlement, political intervention, and reports of Comptroller and Auditor General exposing the shortcomings of financial framework in Government offices. It is required "to build the capacity of Officers to perform financial procedures at their workspace as per latest Financial Rules and instructions issued by Government". 

The Financial and Administrative Officers including Finance Managers, Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs), XENs, SDOs, Principals, Deputy Directors, Employment Officers, Accounts Officers, Section Officers etc.; who deals with the accounting and financial operations in Government offices are required regular updates with regard to latest rules and regulations. The State Administrative Training Institutes are relied by the Governments to incorporate emerging issues in their training curriculum and assist officers to understand the significance of each new update alongwith enforcing the updated rules, instructions in the officers under their supervision. 

Skills for Financial Operations:

What is required basically, is to upgrade the skills of officers dealing financial and accounting operations with regard to various grey areas identified during the past training courses being organized from time to time. It is the need of the hour to describe the provisions of Punjab Financial Rules relating to Financial Management; undertake Purchase Operations as per latest Financial Rules (including GeM and e-Procurement); compute recovery of Loans and Advances as per latest norms including functioning through Punjab National Bank (PNB); use MS-Excel software to undertake operations relating to financial procedures at workspace; and deduct accurate amount of income tax and submitting e-TDS return. 

On part of Administrative Training Institutions (ATIs); it is ensured that the officer trainees remain punctual and participate sincerely in each training session. On the first day of course, an introduction of facilities available at campus of the institute, are described and it is also tried to assess the training needs of the participants so that greater emphasis can be given on training inputs where they are facing more difficulties at their workspace such as  

 e-procurement and Government e-Marketplace (GeM)

or 

financial procedures relating to e-TDS

or

purchase and Government eMarketplace

The courses normally proved beneficial with providing a lot of learning in the form of notes and presentations during the training days. The practical exercises and assignments further develop the interest of trainees to have in-depth knowledge of financial procedures. In each batch, as per standards of Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT); the number of participants enrolled, remain between 15 to 25. The adequate number of officers also been provided opportunity to have interactions thoroughly with clearance of all doubts.  

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