CHENNAI: Soon, the Tamil Nadu government will be able to track all its income and expenditure at a single place in real-time. It will be even better for government staff: their salaries and reimbursements will be credited to their accounts in just 15 minutes.
All this is likely to become a reality from September 1 when the State government will migrate to the Integrated Financial and Human Resources Management System (IFHRMS). This is a first-of-its kind system in India that ensures digitisation of the treasury system and its seamless integration with human resources and budget management.
Once the migration is complete, pay, promotion, transfer, leave and other service details of nine lakh government employees will be updated in real-time and will be communicated to the employees by text messages, explained Tenkasi S Jawahar, TN Commissioner of Treasuries and Accounts.
According to Jawahar, the system will handle some Rs 1.7 lakh crore of State government money while serving seven lakh pensioners and nine lakh government servants. It will also take into account records of TN’s contractual and other staff.
On February 8, Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam had announced that the system would be implemented April. Jawahar acknowledged the delay, which he attributed to ensuring foolproof implementation. “Initially, we planned to migrate to the system on August 1 but still some issues have to be resolved. The system will be in place by September 1,” he said.
Once IFHRMS is implemented, the 18,000 drawing and disbursing officers (DDOs) will be able to submit bills to the treasury online. The system will provide real-time data on revenue and expenditure and will be linked to Income Tax department, Reserve Bank of India and Comptroller and Auditor General of India as well as other banks.
Currently, the DDOs take five to seven days to prepare the bills of a department and a week to scrutinise them from where it is sent to three levels of channels where it takes three days to authenticate. Even for the money or salary being transferred from the Reserve Bank of India to the State Bank of India and from there to other banks, it takes a minimum of five days.
Jawahar said that with the implementation of the new system, it will all take just one day and money will be credited in 15 minutes.
Moreover, retiring government servants need not wait for a month for their first pension after their last day in service, as they did in the past, since service records will be updated in the system regularly allowing immediate action to be taken and pensionary benefits to be paid without any unnecessary delay. The possibility of fraud or misappropriation is likely be reduced. The system-based records can be utilised by the government for human resources-related review and planning. Postings and transfer decisions can be taken by the authenticated service particulars available, Jawahar added.
Factfile
How the system will help
About nine lakh government employees’ pay details, promotion, transfer, leave and other service details will get updated on real-time basis
A total of
Rs 1.7 lakh cr govt money will be handled through the system
RBI, CAG, I-T department will be linked to the IFHRMS system
Govt employees who are retiring will not have to wait for pension for one month as service records will get updated immediately