Civil accounts dept has sanctity attached; can't afford to err: Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said the civil account department of the government cannot afford to err as it informs about the state of public finances to the nation and there is an element to sanctity attached to it. The finance minister inaugurated the centralised GPF module of Public Financial Management System (PFMS) for all central government employees and ePPO module of PFMS for complete end-to-end electronic processing of pension cases. Speaking at the occasion, Jaitley said, "There is a certain amount of sanctity which must remain attached to the government accounting system." "While there are government departments that can function with a fairly high amount of accuracy, the Civil Accounts Department is one that cannot afford to err because a small error can lay a huge foot prints," Jaitely said at the 42nd Civil Accounts Day here. The government accounts need to be error free as the government informs the nation on the state of public finances and therefore the sanctity of work is important and involves high level of efficiency which adds to the integrity of the government, he said. Noting that sanctity and credibility of the accounting system of the government has been maintained over the years, there is a certain amount of sanctity which must remain attached to the government accounting system, Jaitley said who also holds the portfolio of Corporate Affairs Ministry. Lauding the Indian Civil Accounts Service (ICAS) professionals, he said the effective use of technology ensures that every rupee of the government is accounted for and can be tracked which adds up to the overall efficiency of the government. It also leads to effective utilisation of government money, he said, adding the full integration of government accounting system with the GST Network, RBI and banks which has been instrumental in providing timely and reconciled reports on collections of CGST, SGST and IGST among others. The minister inaugurated the centralized GPF module of Public Financial Management System (PFMS) for all central government employees and ePPO module of PFMS for complete endtoend electronic processing of pension cases. The centralised General Provident Fund (GPF) module meets a long standing demand of the central government employees for a mapping of GPF accounts with the unique employee ID that will facilitate online application for GPF advances and withdrawals with online access to the employees current GPF balances, the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) said in a statement. The module will streamline GPF accounting and transfer of balances. The ePPO function will include integration of the BHAVISHYA application of the Department of Pension & Pensioners Welfare and the PARAS application of CPAO with PFMS for seamless processing of pension cases and eliminate delays and errors involved in manual processing.

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