Fixing Responsibility of an Officer or Staff in Frauds

Fixing Responsibility of an Officer or Staff in Frauds

-Dr. Lalit Kumar*

In Government, the Finance Department is entrusted to ensure proper utilization of Financial Resources. To support the Finance Department, the duties and responsibilities have been defined for the Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) in their respective offices. The Head of Departments relies upon the Head of Offices and Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) for getting the works done as per the requirement to meet organizational objectives. It is the DDO who draws money from the treasury or deposit collected receipts into the treasury. The DDO is bound to ensure and observe the compliance of financial rules while preparing bills and making payments.

Workload on DDOs:

 The prime concern is dual workload on the DDO because most of the times, the charge of DDO function is provided as additional charge to an administrative officer. Generally the task of DDO is performed by Head of Offices i.e. School Principal in Government School, College Principal, Principal of Industrial Training Institution, Principal of Polytechnic Institution, Engineer of Sub-Division of Engineering Department etc. Due to heavy workload related to non-financial matters, usually they apply minimum check and sign bills and books of accounts as and when produced with faith upon the subordinates.

Training of DDOs:

However, the DDOs are provided specific training to perform their functions with full sincerity by using technological tools but the workload they are burdened with, makes the task complicated. A DDO is supposed to maintain various registers such as (i) Bill register, (ii) Cash Book, (iii) Stock Account, (iv) Register of Loans and Advances, (v) Salary Register and much more as per the requirements of the office. In most of the circumstances, the DDOs rely upon the supporting staff. A DDO authorizes a subordinate officer to function under his or her direct control. Since the rules of management tell that responsibility cannot be delegated, even if the fault is of the subordinate, the responsibility is either fixed jointly or solely of the DDO. 

Practical Problems in dealing Subordinates:

DDOs face problem in dealing the subordinates when the authorities of DDO are delegated to someone who is more proficient than the DDO. Due to use of technological tools in Financial Operations, the DDOs not competent to use technological tools suffer more and they rely upon the subordinates who are working with lower designation but their technological skills are more sharpen than the DDO. In such circumstances, the DDO's task to handle the subordinates becomes cumbersome. Due to workload, the DDO starts to rely more than the requirement of the situation. 

Fraud disclosed in Municipal Council of Bahadurgarh in September 2020:

Prime Minister Awas Yojana (PMAY) initiative was taken by the Government of India which mandates to provide affordable housing to urban poor people. The programme aims to build 20 million affordable houses by the year ending 31^st March 2022. A Beneficiary can receive subsidy of Rs. 2.67 Lacs on loan of Rs. 20 Lacs on interest rate, required to be paid in 20 years with. The subsidy is credit linked and only for economically weaker section and middle income group. Since the subsidy is being provided through lending banks and financial institutions and an applicant can avail maximum interest subsidy of Rs. 2.67 Lacs which comes directly in the eligible beneficiary’s loan account.

In September 2020, a fraud detected by an Officer of Municipal Council, Bahadurgah, Haryana. The officer arrived IDBI Bank to get the details of bank account of Municipal Council and he found that the amount has been withdrawn from the bank account with using Cheques of Municipal Council while the cheque book was not issued to the Council. The subsidy comes directly in the accounts of beneficieries through the portal of Public Finance Management System (PFMS). The person who used cheques to withdraw cash from the account, firstly withdraw money from the account of IDBI Bank Account thereafter he withdrawn money from the account of Axiz Bank by using each cheque amounting Rs. 9 Lacs 93 Thousands in each transaction. The officer of Minicipal Council recorded FIR in the Police and the police started to investigate the matter.

Dear friends, what do you say, who may be at fault in this whole matter?

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How corruption is affecting Public Financial System and what efforts can be taken to ensure compliance of e-Governance initiatives. Read full article on Corruption and Public Financial System.