Litigations due to financial mess, impropriety
All engineers asked to strictly follow guidelines
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Oct 12: Taking serious note of litigations due to financial mess and administrative impropriety, the Government has made it clear that Superintending Engineers and Executive Engineers won’t get integrity certificate if the personal appearance of Administrative Secretary or the Chief Engineer is sought by the courts in future.
Moreover, all the engineers right from top to bottom in the Roads and Buildings Department have been explicitly told to strictly follow rules and guidelines failing which necessary action will be initiated against them.
Despite repeated instructions from the Government particularly the Finance Department, it has been observed that Superintending Engineers/ Executive Engineers and other field functionaries of the Roads and Building Department are taking up works without accord of Administrative Approval, Technical Sanction and Budgetary Allocation, which is against the financial discipline and as such results into court cases, official sources told EXCELSIOR.
Besides these works are being taken up without availability of encumbrance free land and without approval of the Government and provision of compensation.
“During a recent exercise it came to the fore that in numerous matters, the Administrative Department has been dragged in court where background of the cases is not known in the department. Moreover, in several cases the Administrative Secretary of Roads and Buildings Department has been asked for personal appearance in the court”, sources said.
They further said, “it has also been observed by the Administrative Department that the Executive Engineers are mentioning ‘funds have been demanded’ while filing affidavits in the court despite being aware of the fact that mere writing for funds to higher authorities doesn’t result automatically into availability of funds”.
Taking serious note of all these aspects, the Principal Secretary to Government, Roads and Building Department has issued slew of directions to all the engineers and made it clear that Superintending Engineers and Executive Engineers wouldn’t get integrity certificate in case personal appearance of Administrative Secretary or the Chief Engineer is sought by the court in the cases which have surfaced due to financial mess and administrative impropriety.
“Budget of the department is voted by Legislative Assembly/Parliament which remains unaltered till revised estimates. During budget estimates/revised estimates every Head of the Department is communicated with the outlay of the department/directorate”, the Government said, adding “during the financial year if any project has been taken up with prior approval of competent authority, it is required to be reflected in the annual budget of the circle/division/directorate”.
Accordingly, the Government has directed that wherever such instances have occurred and ‘funds demanded’ have been mentioned the work/project must be reflected in annual action plan of directorate/circle/division of R&B Department.
In order to ensure that court understands the issue in right perspective, the Government has directed that information vis-à-vis name and designation of officer who has authorized tender/taking up of that work and being contested in the court of law; whether Administrative Approval has been accorded or not and if not the name and designation of the officer who has indulged in taking up of that work and whether the letter for additional financial resources issued, if yes, the copy of that letter be furnished to the court.
“The present incumbent Superintending Engineer/ Executive Engineer must then spell out the name and designation of the officer due to whom financial mess and administrative impropriety has been resulted into court cases”, the Government further said, adding “if affidavit has already been filed with ‘funds have been demanded’, the additional affidavit must be filed in the court of law reflecting all the information”.
It has been explicitly made clear that if at any occasion such kind of affidavit is filed in the court of law mentioning ‘funds have been demanded’ and personal appearance of Administrative Secretary or Chief Engineer takes place the concerned Superintending Engineer and Executive Engineer shall be personally responsible and no integrity certificate shall be issued for such officers.
Laying thrust on ensuring financial discipline and administrative proprietary at all cost, the Government has asked all the Chief Engineers, Superintending Engineers and Executive Engineers to strictly follow codal/procedural formalities while taking up works and only those works shall be executed which are part of Capex Budget or any other programme approved by the competent authority to avoid court cases.
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