In a major decision, the government today directed all the administrative secretaries and head of departments to change the mode of payment of bills from manual to electronic from April 1 to avoid disruption of payment and ensure transparency.
An order issued by the General Administration Department (GAD) has asked the departments and drawing and disbursing officers (DDOs) to ensure that the new system is put in place on priority basis to ensure transparency and integrity of the payment system.
“To avoid delay in making payments to ultimate beneficiaries by the respective DDOs, they should make payments to beneficiaries by directly affording credit to their bank accounts at the stage of drawal of the bill itself from the treasury,” says the order. As per the norm prevalent in J&K, the drawing and disbursing officers (DDOs) after drawing bills from treasuries gets the amount credited to their official bank accounts and thereafter make payments to the beneficiaries as per their convenience through cheques, resulting in delayed payment to the beneficiaries.
“Delays so caused at times compromises transparency and integrity of the payment system and cause severe inconvenience to the beneficiaries,” says the Finance Department circular.
“The practice of first affording credit to the DDOs and then making payment through cheques shall be stopped and the DDOs are, therefore, barred from using bank cheque books and advised to close the cheque books available with them and return the same to the J&K Bank under proper receipt,” it said. The Chief Executive Officer, J&K Bank, has been asked to issue instructions to the business units that they will not issue cheque books to any DDO without specific authorisation from the Finance Department. The administrative secretaries, head of departments/ drawing and disbursing officers concerned shall be responsible for putting in place the electronic mode of payment system.
Only electronic mode of payment from treasuries in J&K from April 1
