BENGALURU: A tussle between the Union government and the State over the use of finance-related software in the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj department has led to the Centre to threaten to hold up Rs 1,800 crore of funds if the State government did not fall in line. This has now put the state government in a quandary as the process of shifting to the new software is a long and drawn out one. Ministry of Panchayath Raj of the Union government, as well as Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department from the State government, currently use different software. While the Union government is insisting that the State government adopt their software, the State says that it has its own software in place.
After trying various means to convince them, Ministry of Panchayath Raj finally told the State RDPR that they would be unable to release funds allotted under the 14th Finance Commission. Panchayati Raj Institutions Accounting Software (PRIASoft) is used by the Union government, while State has its own inbuilt software – Public Financial Management System (PFMS). After Union government insisted, all state governments adopted PRIASoft except Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.
There are 6,024-gram panchayats in the State. “The Union government budget was presented in February and there they allotted Rs 1,800 crore under the 14th Finance Commission to Karnataka for development of gram panchayats alone. Under this grant, the State government was supposed to provide better amenities to gram panchayats including water, sanitation, garbage disposal, construction of roads and many more at gram panchayats. Union government has not released funds for the same and these works for this year have not been taken at gram panchayats,’’ official sources from the RDPR said.
The Union government has instructed RDPR to complete audit for the year 2017-18 in PRIASoft. Since the State was using PFMS in the same duration, auditing cannot be done in different software. The same will be convened to the Union government. But now, after the Union government refused to release funds for this financial year if the State uses the old software, the RDPR has no choice but to fall in line. The latest meeting proceeding available with TNIE says they are now planning to give training on PRIASoft to chief finance officers at all gram panchayats to data operators to adopt the software developed by the Union government.
However, official sources from RDPR say it will not happen anytime soon. It is a long process. Apart from 6,024-gram panchayats, there are 30 Zilla panchayats and 176 taluk panchayats in Karnataka. “To adopt this, we first need to have a separate bank account registered for each gram panchayat. But we have it only for our zilla and taluk panchayats. We have started the process of registering a separate bank account for gram panchayats, which are in large number, we will take some more time and till then, we will not get grants from the Union government,’’ an official source said.