IX PAY & ACCOUNTS 43. PAY & ACCOUNTS OFFICE

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1 IX PAY & ACCOUNTS 43. PAY & ACCOUNTS OFFICE 43.1 Introduction: The Pay and Accounts Office, Rajya Sabha, was constituted on 1 st October 1955 under the scheme of separation of Accounts from Audit. It functions as a Treasury cum- Departmental Accounts Office of Rajya Sabha Secretariat and also as Controller of Exchequer. All Payments and accounting of transactions relating to the Rajya Sabha Secretariat and Pay and Accounts Office are made by this Office. Besides other work, the Pay and Accounts Officer also acts as D.D.O. for Pay and Accounts Office Main Functions: The Pay and Accounts Office, Rajya Sabha consists of two Sections namely Accounts Section and Audit Section. The main duties of Accounts Section in brief are as follows: - (a) To diarise all kinds of bills and letters received in the section. (b) (c) Controlling of bills to ensure that the expenditure incurred is within the sanctioned budget grant during the current financial year and under the particular head of accounts. (Controlling of expenditure has been routed through Estt.(G) Section from the Financial Year ) Preparation of Union Government monthly Civil Accounts in two ways manually as well as on computer and submission thereof to Comptroller General of Accounts (CGA) latest by 15 th of each month. (d) Preparation of Union Government Finance Account, appropriation account, Statement for Central transactions to be submitted to the office of CGA annually. (e) (f) (g) Disbursement, revision/settlement of pension cases in respect of retired/retiring employees of Rajya Sabha Secretariat /P&AO. This Section has been entrusted to process the pension cases of Ex. Vice-Presidents of India also. Maintenance of GP Fund Accounts/CPF in respect of all officers and staff of Rajya Sabha Secretariat including Pay and Accounts Office calculation of interest, issuance of GPF/CPF annual statements to the subscribers, payment of temporary GPF advances/non-refundable withdrawal to the employees and settlement of final G.P.F. Accounts and payment thereof. Preparation, submission and finalisation of revised and budget estimate relating to revenue receipt head, public account head and pension pertaining to Rajya Sabha Circle of Account. The main duties of Audit Section are as follows: -

2 (a) (b) Pre check/audit of the Bills received from the Estt.(A/Cs) Section/M.S.&A Section/Pay and Account Office through Accounts Section of the PAO ( after Diarisation and Controlling of the amounts), and arranging payments thereof after cent percent pre check and account for all receipts relating to Rajya Sabha Circle. Foreign Travel Expenses Bills relating to the Hon ble Chairman/Members/Deputy Chairman and Officer of this Secretariat. (c) LTC advance bills, Children Education Allowance reimbursement/ota and Honorarium Bills in respect of, officers and staff of the Rajya Sabha Secretariat and Pay and Accounts Office. (d) (e) Bills relating to Loans and advances to MPs and Government Servants (HBA/Motor Car Advance/Scooter Advance/Computer Advance/Fan Advance bills). Bills relating to salaries, TA/DA, Indian Airlines Invoices, conveyance and medical claims of the Chairman/Deputy Chairman and Members, Rajya Sabha and Officers and Staff of the Rajya Sabha Secretariat as well as this Office after pre check and audit of bills. (f) Bills relating to payment of pension to ex-members of Parliament (g) Maintenance of service books, leave accounts and quittance rolls in respect of the establishment of Pay and Accounts Office and maintenance of accounts of short term and long term loans and advances sanctioned and paid to Government employees in the Rajya Sabha Circle of Accounts. The comprehensive list of work done in P&AO during the year 2001 is at (Annexure-43.1) Goals: The primary responsibility of this Office is to ensure that no payment is made in excess of the Budget Grant unless it is covered by an advance from the Contingency Fund of India. Moreover, all kinds of Payments (Salary, OTA, TA/DA, Medical bills, Pension bills, Office Expenditure of Members/officers of the Rajya Sabha Secretariat and Pay and Accounts Office, Rajya Sabha) are made after cent percent pre check of bills by issuance of cheques payable on the Reserve Bank of India, New Delhi and to ensure that payment are not delayed without any sufficient reason. However, the statutory Audit Functions have been devised on the pattern of Director of Audit, Central Revenues, New Delhi. The Pay and Accounts Officer has to discharge his duties and responsibilities in direct liaison with the Secretary-General, Rajya Sabha who is the Chief Accounting Authority of the Rajya Sabha Circle of Accounts. The Pay and Accounts Officer

3 has also to ensure that the incurring of expenditure from the Consolidated Fund of India is governed by the following essential conditions:- (i) that there is provision of funds authorised by the competent authority fixing the limits within which expenditure can be incurred. (ii) that the expenditure incurred conforms to the relevant provisions of the Act, Constitution and of the laws made thereunder and are also in accordance with the financial rules and regulations framed by the competent authority; and (iii) that there exists sanction, either special or general, accorded by the competent authority authorising expenditure. The Pay and Accounts Officer is authorised to draw funds by means of cheques drawn on Reserve Bank of India accredited for handling the receipts and payments of the Rajya Sabha circle of Accounts. Pay and Accounts Officer himself has also to discharge a special responsibility for indenting, safe custody, issue and accountal of cheques books as prescribed under the rules. Moreover, a classified account of all payments made by this Office are compiled and rendered to the Office of the Controller General of Accounts on monthly as well as annual basis. In discharging the aforesaid duties, this office maintains necessary liaison with the Office of the Controller General of Accounts in order to effect overall coordination and control in accounting matters. While monitoring disposal of all bills received by this office, Pay and Accounts Officer ensures with utmost expedition that the work is consistent with efficiency and accuracy. Pay and Accounts Officer has the overall responsibility to ensure that the requisite standard of technical expertise for accounting work is maintained as per the procedure and time limits in accordance with Rules laid down in the Civil Accounts Manual and Ministry of Finance (Department of Expenditure) orders issued from time to time Analysis: Though Pay and Accounts Office has a separate identity and separate budgetary allocation, it functions in close association with the Rajya Sabha Secretariat. Consequent upon the constitution of six departments related Parliamentary Standing Committees in April 1993, Committee on Ethics, Committee on MPLAD and Committee on the functioning of different state Wakf Boards and introduction of tour programmes in these Committees the workload of Pay and Accounts Office in general and Audit Section in particular has increased to a great extent. Besides, creation of Training Unit, O&M Section and Computer Section and introduction of Secretarial

4 assistance Service to about 250 Hon ble Members (who have deployed 1 to 3 PAs) the workload of Audit Section has increased further. Though the sanctioned strength of Rajya Sabha Secretariat has increased to large extent, the sanctioned strength of P&AO is stagnant to its original strength of Inspite of this, the work has not been allowed to suffer on account of manpower shortage. As a custodian of funds, P&AO has been trying his best to ensure that rules are strictly followed and Payments are released to all concerned without any delay Computerisation: Improve Contact SCT (DOS Ver) supplied by System Group, O/O CGA are used to compile monthly as well as yearly accounts. Different packages running under Unix- for generating pay bills/bank Statements/GPF monthly statements/gpf interest calculations and to Generate Annual Statement of each individual working in this Secretariat and subscribing to G.P. Fund have been used. MS Excel has been used for calculating Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme/Pension Arrears etc. All the statements pertaining to appropriation Accounts/Finance Accounts are being prepared with the help of Lyrix/MS words. As the work involved in this office is of technical nature, auditing and accounting training to staff members will be of immense help to deal with day-to-day work. Due to paucity of space in both the sections the records are not being managed properly and difficulties are being faced to trace the record at short notice Training: There lacks the proper arrangement for training of P&AO staff by CGA/CAG experts. In view of the facts that maintenance of Accounts and its related functions of scrutiny are technical in nature, periodical training programme for the staff posted in Accounts as well as Audit Section of P&AO may be arranged for smooth and efficient functioning Budget Estimate :- Head Purpose Expenditure upto Salary 38,60,000/- To pay the salary and 33,27,395/- other allowances to the Employees of P&AO.

5 OTA 1,10,000/- To make Payment on 71,887/- Account of extra work done by P&AO Staff. D.T. Exp 5,000/- To make payment Nil in connection with Official tour undertaken by the staff of P&AO Office Exp 2,000/- To meet Petty 1258/- Contingent expenses such as Scooter/Taxi fare in connection with visit to different offices. The advances under Major Head 7610 Loans and Advances to Govt. servants etc. is mainly looked after by Estt. (G) Section. PAO sends the demand for allocation for its office as and when the demand arises Miscellaneous: Pay and Accounts Office processed and prepared 7 Medical Bills, 16 GPF Bills, and 3 Children Education Allowance Bills for employees of the P&AO Office. All the 29 Service Books maintained by this Office have been verified and signed by the concerned employees Inspection: The Pay and Accounts Office was inspected on by Shri.Tapas Dasgupta, Director. It was pointed out that enhancement of manpower will further improve the disposal of work in Pay & Accounts Office. Besides, emphasis was given for placement of dealing hands with accounts background and aptitude for computer applications.

6 Annexure 43.1 Abstract of the work done by Pay & Accounts Office during MPs Salary Bills MPs PA s Bills Hon ble Chairman Salary Bills Hon ble Deputy Chairman Salary Bills Hon ble Leader of Opposition Salary Bills Hon ble Chairman Medical Bills 2 7. MPs Medical Bills MPs Car Advance MPs TA/DA Bills Hon ble Deputy Chairman TA/DA Bills &Medical Bills LOP TA/DA Bills & Medical Bills I.A.C. Bills Pay & Allowances Bills of Gazetted Officers TA/DA, LTC, Miscellaneous Bills (Gos) Salary TA/DA, LTC, Contingent miscellaneousbills (NGOs) Demand Drafts for outstations payments Fresh Cases of Ex-MPs

7 Pension Pension Bills of Ex- MPs Ex-MPs Pension Cases Transferred to Banks Ex-MPs Pension Cases correspondence dealt by the Use of computer Pension cases of Ex-MPs revised Finalisation of Pension Cases in respect of Rajya Sabha Employees on their retirement including family pension Cases Revision of pension cases of employees Transfer of pension payments of the employees to Private Sectors Banks Computation of pension cases of employees of Rajya Sabha/ P&AO Gratuity cases of employees of Rajya Sabha/P&AO Number of effective G.P. Fund Accounts maintained Pension, Commutation & Gratuity Bills of employees G.P. Fund Bills of Rajya Sabha Secretariat employees Settlement of final payments of G.P. Fund accounts Inward Claims regarding settlement of cheques Received from other Ministries/Departments Return & Accounts Statements submitted to the concerned authorities 76

8 33. Receipt of letters: Audit Section & Accounts Section OTA Bills from Rajya Sabha Secretariat OTA Bills from Pay and Accounts Office 23

IX PAY & ACCOUNTS 43. PAY & ACCOUNTS OFFICE

IX PAY & ACCOUNTS 43. PAY & ACCOUNTS OFFICE 43.1. Introduction: The Pay and Accounts Office, Rajya Sabha, was constituted on 1 st October 1955 under the scheme of separation of Accounts from Audit. It