VIJAYAWADA: The State government issued a memo for opening separate bank accounts in favour of all Gram Panchayats (GPs), Mandal Praja Parishads (MPPs) and Zilla Praja Parishads (ZPPs) for handling the 15th Finance Commission grants/funds.
The memo was issued following the instructions from the Union Ministry of Expenditure and Ministry of Panchayat Raj to all the States that the Central Finance Commission Grants should be operated only through Public Financial Management System (PFMS) duly integrating with e-GramSwaraj application developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC).
The government gave permission to all GPs, MPPs and ZPPs for opening separate bank accounts in Union Bank of India for operating the 15th Finance Commission funds through e-GramSwaraj- PFMS module. The Commissioner (Panchayat Raj and Rural Development) informed that in order to monitor the fund flow, the PFMS is mandated for utilisation of Finance Commission grants by GPs, MPPs and ZPPs through integration of “e-GramSwaraj with PFMS system”. The module developed facilitates real-time payments to the service providers/vendors in the rural area.
In order to implement the PFMS in the state, it is necessary to open separate bank accounts for the local bodies.
Conditions apply
The following pre-requisites should be fulfilled while opening separate bank accounts for operating the 15 th Finance Commission funds to implement the PFMS System through e-GramSwaraj - PFMS Interface:
Procurement of Class - 3 signing and encrypted digital signature certificate tokens of panchayat secretary (acts as MAKER) and sarpanches (act as Approver) in case of gram panchayats. Procurement of Class - 3 signing and encrypted digital signature certificate tokens of administrative officer of MPDO (acts as MAKER) and MPDO (acts as Approver) in respect of Mandal Praja Parishads.
Procurement of Class - 3 signing and encrypted digital signature certificate tokens of administrative officer of accounts section in ZPP (acts as MAKER) and the Dy.CEO, ZPP (acts as Approver) in the case of Zilla Praja Parishads. All the ZPPs, MPPs and Gram Panchayats should map the accounts in PFMS portal duly creating the PFMS agency code. They should update the e-GramSwaraj-PRIA Soft Accounts upto the current financial year. Training on the e-GramSwaraj - PFMS Integration should be done at the local level.