If financial discipline is not maintained strictly by some departments run by the Government as prescribed in official manual book , that is tantamount to committing a financial irregularity which depending upon the nature of violation deserves not only a serious view to be taken but the erring officials dealt with in accordance with service conduct rules. Obviously, if the nature hovers around an embezzlement, a scam, defalcation, misusing or withholding Government receipts for no reasons from depositing in the treasury /Bank as the case may be, in addition to departmental action, penal action too has to be taken. At the outset, why should financial code be abused at all, is a pertinent question.
It is a sad commentary on how Government or public funds have been misused in various departments like funds diverted, etc which has been detected and revealed in the random finding. While Government has , post detection, sought detailed report from all the concerned Administrative Secretaries in this regard, we have certain points which being pertinent need clarification. Has such detection been as a result of some complaints received or as a fallout of organised follow up by the Finance Department and the General Administration Department. What is the periodicity of conducting of such exercises? Are the concerned Departments not being regularly audited and audit reports made by the auditors for rectifying irregularities of minor nature at such departments and those of serious nature referred to the concerned agencies for proper action?
If an official receives any money on behalf of the Government in his official capacity, he or she is supposed to deposit the same in the nearest treasury in the appropriate Government account without any additions or deductions. One cannot hold the amount of such receipts back to appropriate the same even for departmental expenditures as there is no explicit authorisation from a competent authority for that deviation from set procedures. This is properly mentioned in the Financial Code. Even if it were not, still prudence and commonsense demanded that such receipts be dealt with only by depositing immediately in the Government treasury. However, the Finance Department has found such a practice of ‘retaining ‘ the Government receipts in an unauthorised manner in flagrant violation of the rules almost like a routine which sounds totally unusual. Not only this, it has been found that many departments are resorting to the uncalled for practice of irregular diversion of funds released into their bank accounts.
It seems ludicrous that for such a cardinal issue involving handling of Government receipts, the Financial Commissioner should issue instructions repeatedly which is indicative of how very casually and mundanely, financial matters are handled in most of the departments in Jammu and Kashmir. Had there been provisions in the Financial Code to treat such violations as akin to committing gross financial irregularities punishable with departmental action against the erring officials, such a practice would have not been there to the extent of having graduated to a routine. Again, had there been the practice and culture of audits with strict periodicity on continuous basis, such violations would have been noticed in time and proper action taken in identified cases but the ‘treatment’ of such Financial Code violations is in the form of issuing circulars only. It is only the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) that it has made such findings and worst, that no action had been taken on its findings which has led the CAG to comment that there was absence of internal control in matters of funds management by various departments in Jammu and Kashmir. The crux of the matter is that while ‘serious views’ only were taken by the controlling authorities followed by repetition of issuance of circulars, the financial discipline was far below the average levels. Cogent stringent decisions are required to be implemented to maintain, sustain and strengthen the Financial Code and not only customary expressing of displeasures.
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