15.44 Introduction-The Pay and Accounts Office, Rajya Sabha was constituted on 1st October 1955 under the schemes of separation of Accounts from Audit, leaving only statutory audit functions in respect of Rajya Sabha Secretariat with the Director General of Audit, Central Revenues. The Pay & Accounts Office functions as a Treasury cum Departmental Accounts Office of the Rajya Sabha Secretariat and also as a Controller of Exchequer. A separate budget provision is made in the Demand in respect of the Pay & Accounts Office. All payments and accounting of transactions relating to the Rajya Sabha Secretariat and Pay and Accounts Office are made by this office.
Secretary-General, Rajya Sabha acts as the Chief Accounting Authority and this responsibility is discharged by him through and with the assistance of the Pay and Accounts Office.
15.45 Responsibilities- The primary responsibility of this office is to ensure that no payment (from the Consolidated Fund of India) is made in excess of the Budget grant unless it is covered by an advance from the Contingency Fund of India. Moreover, all kinds of payments (Salary, OTA, TA/DA, Office Expenses of Members and Officers/officials) pertaining to the Rajya Sabha Secretariat and Pay and Accounts office, Rajya Sabha are made after cent-percent pre-check of Bills and these are made through Reserve Bank of India Cheques. The duty of the Pay and Accounts Officer is to see that the incurring of expenditure from the Consolidated Fund of India is governed by the following essential conditions: -
(i) that there is provision of funds authorised by the competent authority fixing the limits within which expenditure can be incurred.
(ii) that the expenditure incurred conforms to the relevant provisions of the Act, Constitution and to the laws made thereunder and should also be in accordance with the financial rules and regulations framed by the competent authority; and
(iii) that there exists sanction, either special or general, accorded by the competent authority authorising expenditure.
The Pay and Accounts Officer is authorised to draw funds by means of cheques drawn on Reserve Bank of India accredited for handling the receipts and payments of the Rajya Sabha circle of Accounts. The Pay and Accounts Officer himself has also to discharge a special responsibility for indenting, safe custody, issue and accountal of cheque books as prescribed under the rules. Moreover, a classified account of all payments made by this office are compiled and rendered to the Office of the Controller General of Accounts on monthly as well as annual basis. Besides this, office is also dealing with the following jobs:
i) The maintenance of G.P./ C.P Fund accounts relating to Rajya Sabha Circle.
ii) Settlement of transactions adjustable by other Accounts (suspense accounts).
iii) Pension Cases (Members/Officers/Officials)
iv) Submission of Budget Estimates & Revised Estimates under various heads in the form of a demand (Revenues Receipt, Pension, Public Accounts etc.).
In discharging the aforesaid duties this office maintains close liaison with the office of the Controller General of Accounts in order to effect overall coordination and control in accounting matters. While monitoring disposal of all bills received by this office, Pay and Accounts Officer ensures that the work is disposed off with the utmost expedition consistent with efficiency and accuracy. Pay and Accounts Officer has the overall responsibility to ensure that the requisite standard of technical expertise for accounting work in this office is maintained. The procedures and time limits for works performed in this Office is according to Rules, as laid down in the Civil Accounts Manual and Ministry of Finance (Department of Expenditure) orders.
In discharging his responsibilities, the Pay and Accounts Officer, Rajya Sabha is assisted by two Sections under him, namely, Accounts Section and Audit Section. The work has been distributed between these two Sections keeping in view the principles of separation of accounts from audit.
15.46 Accounts Section-
15.46.1 Bill Diary Register: All kinds of Bills, from both the Rajya Sabha Secretariat and Pay and Accounts Office, are received and processed by this Section. The proforma of Bill diary Register is given below:
|
Date |
Diary No. |
Particular of Bills |
Net Amount |
Bill No. |
|
1 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
15.46.2 Expenditure Control: To control the Bills relating to grants controlled by Rajya Sabha Secretariat/Pay and Accounts Office, Rajya Sabha, as soon as the bills are received from the concerned billing Sections, it is checked to ensure that the expenditure involved does not exceed the Sanctioned Budget Grant during that particular financial year under that particular Head of Accounts. If the expenditure involved in that particular bill exceeds the sanctioned Budget Grant or funds under a particular head of accounts is exhausted, that bill is kept pending/returned to the DDO until a written communication is received that funds have been arranged or will be arranged. Bills are then sent to the concerned Auditors for check/audit/payment. Separate registers are maintained for controlling of bills pertaining to different sub heads relating to the grants controlled by this Secretariat, as per the following format:
(Rajya Sabha Secretariat)
|
DATE |
DIARY NO./
BILL NO. |
Head of Account 01.00.01 Salary |
Head of Account 01.00.11 TA/DA |
Head of Account 01.00.13 Office Expenses |
Remarks |
|
|
Sanctioned
grant for the Particular
head of Accounts (Red
entry) |
Rs. |
Rs. |
Rs. |
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
|
|
Total
Expenditure for a particular day :( Bill wise total )
Progressive Expenditure: : BALANCE |
|
|
|
|
15.46.3 Monthly Civil Accounts: This Section prepares Accounts {Union Government (Civil) Accounts} relating to the Rajya Sabha Circle and submits the Monthly Civil Accounts to the Ministry of Finance (Department of Expenditure). As soon as the payment against a particular bill is made by the Audit Section, that bill is treated as a voucher. On receipt of the daily memorandum of pre-check payments along with the vouchers, this Section verifies whether the amount and total are correctly entered. In order to prepare the Monthly Civil Accounts, vouchers received from the Audit Section after pre check/payment are compiled on day-to-day basis. They are posted in the Compilation Book (Form CAM 33 in two parts: for payments in the DETAIL BOOK and for receipts: in the PAO-4 Register). The gross amount indicated in the voucher against various units of appropriation etc. are posted against the concerned heads; deductions/recoveries shown in payment vouchers are compiled under each relevant heads such as Income-Tax, surcharge, house rent, and recovery of Advances taken by the Government Servants such as for purchasing Motor Car, Scooter, House Building, Computer, recovery of G. P. fund contribution or "PAO Suspense"- head, where a credit is adjustable finally in the books of another accounts authority. The summary of transactions for a particular month are recorded in the Classified Abstract Forms (CAM 37 and CAM 38; these forms are attached at the back of DETAIL BOOK) in two parts- Part I for receipt (credit) entries and Part II for booking disbursement (debit) entries.
After finalisation and preparation of the monthly accounts the Consolidated Abstract is prepared. This is maintained in two parts, Part I for recording the receipts (credit) transactions and Part II for recording disbursement (debit) transactions for each year (in the form CAM 39). Separate columns for each month's transaction and progressive total upto the end of each month are posted in these Registers. Major/minor, sub/detailed heads are indicated therein in the same sequence as in the classified Abstract and monthly total from the latter are posted against each of the head of accounts under the appropriate monthly column and progressive total upto end of month are struck.
The Monthly Accounts are prepared in two ways- Manually and on Computer. The computerised accounts are prepared with the help of softwares 'IMPROVE' and 'CONTACT', supplied by the System Group (CGA). Only the Computerised version of the Union Government (Civil) Accounts, prepared on monthly basis, is submitted to the Office of the CGA by 18th of the next month in the form of Floppy along with CONTACT Report No. 1 and 2.
15.46.4 Appropriation Accounts: This Section also prepares, finalises and submits the yearly Union Government Headwise Appropriation Accounts (Civil) relating to the grant administered/controlled by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat. The Appropriation Accounts indicates the expenditure (both voted and charged) of the Government for each financial year compared with the amounts of voted grants and charged appropriations for different purposes, as specified in the Schedules appended to the Appropriation Act passed by the Parliament. These Accounts are submitted to Parliament by the Ministry of Finance (Department of Expenditure) along with CGA's Report under Article 151 of the Constitution of India and are intended to disclose:-
i) that the money indicated therein as having been disbursed was legally available for and applicable to the service or purpose to which they had been applied or charged;
ii) that the expenditure conforms to the authority which governs it; and
iii) the effects of re-appropriations ordered by the Ministry/Department.
If any money has been spent during a financial year in excess of the amounts of voted/charged appropriation (separately under the Revenue and Capital sections), the circumstances leading to such an excess are disclosed through these accounts enabling Parliament to regularise it or otherwise.
Under the departmentalised system of accounting, the Secretary-General, Rajya Sabha acts as the chief accounting authority and is responsible to finally approve and sign the Headwise Appropriation Accounts of grants/appropriation administered by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat.
The Annual Statement of Central Transactions is also prepared/submitted to Controller General of Accounts by this Section. This represents the progressive effect of all transactions during the year upto and including March (supplementary) transactions and prepare only with minor head-wise details under different major heads concerned and showing charged, voted, plan and Non-plan expenditure distinctly. At present, the same is prepared on computers applying the software SCT supplied by the System Group (CGA) and the finalised SCT is submitted to the Office of the CGA in the form of a Floppy.
In addition to preparation and submission of yearly Appropriation Accounts and Statement of Central Transactions, another important duty of this Section is to prepare/finalise/submit the Finance Accounts of the Central Government, relating to the Rajya Sabha Circle of Accounts, and the same is submitted to the office of the Controller General of Accounts and Director General of Audit Central Revenues for audit/check/comments and presentation before Parliament.
The Finance Accounts of the Central Government comprises the accounts of the Central Government as a whole including transactions of Civil Ministries/Departments (Rajya Sabha Secretariat comes under this category), Defence Services, Posts & Telegraphs Department and the Railways. It presents the accounts of receipts and outgoings of the Central Government/Rajya Sabha Secretariat for the year together with the financial results disclosed by different accounts and other data coming under examination, namely Revenue and Capital Account, account of Public Debt and of other liabilities and assets as worked from the balances recorded in the accounts. It supplements the accounts separately presented in the form of Appropriation Accounts for voted and charged appropriations. The Finance Accounts submitted to the Government is an auditor's presentation of general accounts of Government to Parliament.
The Finance Accounts are divided into two parts, namely Part I and Part II. Part I comprises the summarized statements in respect of Revenue, Capital Debt, Deposit, Suspense and Remittances transactions and Contingency Fund. Part II is subdivided into two sections. Section A comprises detailed accounts and other statements relating to Receipts and Expenditure on Revenue and Capital Accounts and Section B comprises detailed accounts etc. relating to Debt, Deposit, Suspense & Remittances transactions and Contingency Fund.
At the close of a financial year, this Section reviews and verifies the balances under various Debt, Deposit and Remittance heads to ascertain wherever necessary whether the person or persons by whom the advance is owned or to whom it is due, admit its correctness and cases of advances due to Government how far they are really recovered. This process is called the Review of Balances. In this connection, a consolidated report for the Rajya Sabha circle of accounts, indicating against the various heads, the amount of unreconciled differences between the broadsheet and ledger balance is furnished to the Finance Accounts Section of the Office of the CGA for audit/check/comments.
In addition to this, Monthly as well as Annual Appropriation Accounts relating to the Composite grants (pension, Interest Payments and Loans and Advances to Govt. Servants.) are also prepared and finalised by this Section and submitted to the Ministries/Departments administering the concerned grants.
These Accounts are prepared as per formats/instructions laid down in the Civil Accounts Manual (in these regards Office of the CGA and DGACR issues instructions from time to time, if any change in the format of accounts has to be effected)
15.46.5 Settlement/Adjustment of Inward and Outward claims: This Section is also responsible for the settlement and adjustment of all transactions relating to other Departments, Ministries, State Governments arising in the accounts of the Pay and Accounts Officer and vice versa by means of inward and outward claims. Records are kept of day to day transactions with Reserve Bank of India, (banker of the Rajya Sabha Secretariat) and reconciliation done of Debit and Credit Scroll (paid cheques and challans are returned to this Office by the Reserve Bank of India for accounting purpose) to figures booked in the Accounts under head '8675- Deposit with Reserve Bank (Payment/Receipt) and "8670- Cheques and Bills (this head indicates the outstanding of Cheques issued by this Office and time barred cheques) and for this purpose a separate register is maintained to keep track of time barred cheques/outstanding cheques in the following format:
OUTWARD CLAIMS REGISTER
Transactions arising in the
accounts of the Pay and Accounts Officer, Rajya Sabha which are adjustable by
the
CAM 53
|
Refer-ence to initial
record and period |
Rece-ipts |
Pay-ments |
Net amount of claims to be preferred (3-2) |
Net amount due to the other
party (2-3_ |
No. and date of letter
forward-ing the claim or cheques if the amount is due to the other
party |
Initials of the branch
officer |
No. and date of acknowl-edgement
for the claim |
Initials of the Super-inte-ndent |
No and date of letter to/ from the other party
forward-ding the Gover-nment draft/ cheque |
|
1. |
2. |
3. |
4. |
5. |
6. |
7. |
8. |
9.
|
10. |
|
Particulars of the Govt.
draft/cheques |
Initials of Branch Officer |
No. and date of acknowledge ment for the Govt. draft/ cheques |
Initials of the Super-int-endent |
No. & date of the credit slip with which the Govt. draft/ cheques is sent to the Bank |
Initials of the Branch Officer |
Date on which the amount appears on the Bank scroll |
Initials of superin-tendent |
Remarks |
|
|
No. & date |
Amt. |
||||||||
|
11. |
12. |
13. |
14. |
15. |
16. |
17. |
18. |
19. |
20 |
INWARD CLAIMS REGISTER
Transactions arising in the
accounts of the Pay and Accounts Office, Rajya Sabha, which are adjustable by
the
CAM 55:
|
S. N. |
No. & date of the
letter with which the claim is recd. |
Period of account |
Rece-ipts |
Pay-ments |
Net amt. Due from the other
party (4-5) |
Net amt. Due to the other
party (5-4) |
No. & date of the letter requisition to the Bank chequesection for a Govt. Draft/ cheques if the amt. Is due to the other party |
Particulars of Govt. draft/cheques recd. |
No. & date of the
credit slip with which the Govt. Draft/ Cheque is sent to the Bank |
Initials of the Branch Officer |
|
|
No & date |
Amt |
||||||||||
|
1. |
2. |
3. |
4. |
5. |
6. |
7. |
8. |
9. |
10. |
11. |
12. |
|
No/ & date of letter for-warding the Govt.
Draft/ Cheque to the other party |
Particulars of Govt. Draft/ Cheque sent |
Initials of the Branch
officer |
No. & date of the acknowle-dgement for the Govt. Draft/ Cheque |
Initials of the superin-tendent |
Date on which the amt. Appears in the Bank scroll |
Initials of the superin- tendent |
Remarks (regarding short clearance, if any etc.) |
|
|
No. & date |
Amt |
|||||||
|
13. |
14. |
15. |
16. |
17. |
18. |
19. |
20. |
21. |
The Debt, Debit and Remittance (DDR) Register is also maintained by this Section, for review of balances, relating to the heads G. P. Fund, Loans and Advances to Govt. Servants etc. The monthly figures booked under various broadsheets pertaining to Debt, Deposit and Remittances heads are compared with the figures of that month's transaction under relevant heads in the monthly accounts for verifying that the two sets of figures tally and are correct; discrepancy if any, between the two are analysed and corrected by means of Transfer Entries.
Ministry wise Suspense Accounts Register is also maintained by this Section (Inward/Outward transactions adjustable with other accounts circles) to keep tracks of adjustments lying outstanding. In this connection, Inward and Outward Registers are also maintained, wherein, the details of such kind of transactions are noted down for future reference. The claims received from the other Accounts circles are processed and settled by this Section after getting the claim verified from the concerned Sections.
15.46.6 Budget Estimates: The Budget Estimates and Revised Estimates relating to the Revenue Receipts Heads (Recovery of License Fees, Recovery of CGHS contribution, Other Miscellaneous Receipts etc, Pension Heads (staff and members), Public Accounts Heads (G. P. Fund - payment and receipt, CGEGIS, etc.), pertaining to the Rajya Sabha Circle of Accounts, are framed and submitted to the Ministry of Finance (Department of Economic