Brief Resume On The Working Of DC – Group

The Compilation of Accounts

As per the constitutional provisions, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India is responsible for the compilation of monthly Accounts of Expenditure and Receipts on the basis of vouchers and schedules received from various Treasuries and Public Works and Forest Divisions/offices of the state Government. As a result thereof, Accountant General J&K maintains the accounts of the Jammu and Kashmir State Government. For this purpose Departmental Compilation Sections have been constituted on a Departmental basis with a view to facilitating uniformity in regard to accounts classification, control of expenditure, reconciliation and other allied matters pertaining to the transaction of each department. DC Group DC Group is one of the biggest wings of the Office. There are thirteen sections dealing in departmental compilation and two Book Sections. Out of these, sections from DC – 1 to DC – 7 are operating from the office at Srinagar and sections from DC – 8 to DC – 13 from office at Jammu besides there are two Book Sections one each located at Srinagar and Jammu. The Monthly Treasury Accounts comprising transactions of Receipt and Payments of the Various Drawing and Disbursing Officers under its financial control alongwith Vouchers / Challans is rendered by the state treasuries to this office by the specified dates provided in the Treasury code Vol – 1. These Accounts are received in the Book Section, Jammu and Srinagar in respect of treasuries falling in the Jammu province and Kashmir Division including Ladakh respectively. These Accounts are rendered by the state treasuries in two lists i.e. List – 1containing transactions from 1st to 18th of the month and the second List consisting of transactions from 19th to the end of the month. The List –1 is rendered to this office by 22nd of the month and the second list alongwith the Cash Account by the 8th of the following month. These are then distributed among the Departmental Compilation Sections where these accounts are compiled treasury wise in respect of each major Head of Account. Since the Accounts in the office of A.G (A&E) have since been computerized, all necessary information viz Budget Allotments with complete classification upto sub detailed Head of the charges, whether Plan/Non Plan/Charged/Voted of the expenditure incurred/revenue realized etc. by all the Drawing and Disbursing officers is captured at the time of the Data Entry stage. After each treasury account is compiled all the requisite MIS Reports are generated. After consolidation of figures of both offices placed at Srinagar and Jammu the monthly figures in the form of Monthly Civil Account are communicated to the state Govt. by the Book Section Srinagar in the first week of next month depicting the true picture of Government Account. The incompletions / variations if any noticed during the course of compilation are immediately brought to the notice of the Treasury Officers /Drawing and Disbursing Officers/ higher authorities. And after the civil accounts including Works and Forest etc. are completed for all twelve months from April to March, Finance and Appropriation Accounts (Annual Accounts) of the State are prepared by the AG J&K on behalf of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India to be laid before the Assembly. There are 218 Public Works Divisions rendering accounts to the Accountant General’s Office both at Srinagar and Jammu out of which 125 PW Divisions render accounts at Srinagar office and 93 at Jammu office. These divisions comprise of 77 Divisions of R&B, 46 Divisions of PDD & 38 Divisions of Irrigation Departments. Besides this there are some divisions of PDD & Irrigation who render their accounts to their Dy. FA & CAO at Srinagar who in turn sends compiled accounts to this office. Some PW Departments draw the expenditure through treasuries by presenting bills at the respective treasuries and the expenditure by these P.W. Departments is booked in this office through DC sections. The last date for submission of monthly accounts is the 10th of the following month to which these accounts relate. Check of monthly accounts rendered by PW Divisions is taken immediately on their receipt in the AG’s office to see: -

• It is complete in all respects with supporting schedules and vouchers as described in the list of accounts Form CPWA 83.
• All the schedules attached with the monthly accounts are in proper form.
• Figures of receipts / disbursements as shown in the form CPWA 80, tally with the totals of the items concerned as appearing in various schedules viz., CPWA 46,64,74,76,79,77 etc. and also to see that these are classified correctly in the monthly accounts and all the relevant columns of these schedules have been properly filled in.
• The items of receipts / disbursements are arithmetically correct and tallied and if they do not agree, the difference be taken to Misc. PW advances or deposit, under intimation to the divisional office.
• The opening cash balance agrees with the closing cash balance of the previous months and the figure “Cash balance diminished / increased” is equal to the difference between opening balance and closing balance. The monthly account Form CPWA/80/83 is signed by the divisional officer. The monthly proof sheets, classified abstracts are prepared and sent to Book Section for booking the figures in the monthly accounts. The consolidated abstracts are prepared on receipt of book actuals from the Book Section. General: As on 31st October 2003, there were 163 State Forest Divisions / Circle Offices functioning in the State of J&K, i.e., 83 forest Divisions in Jammu Province / Region and 80 Forest Divisions in Kashmir / Leh Provinces / Regions. All these Divisional Offices render their accounts to the Accountant General (A&E), J&K at Jammu or Srinagar Office as the case may be. Forest Accounts Branch of this office deals with all the matters of accounting nature relating to Forest Deptt. Monthly Accounts:- The monthly accounts of Forest Divisions offices are required to reach the office of the Accountant General (A&E), Jammu / Srinagar on or before the 10th of the month following that to which the a/c relate. Before submission of the a/cs the Divisional Forest Officers are required to see that all the requisite information contained in the forms 9, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21, 27, 28, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41, 42, 44, 46, 47, 48 & 49 attached therewith. Procedure followed by Accountant General’s office: On receipt of the monthly a/c following checks are applied by forest Branch: 1. That all the documents have been received as per details given in the forwarding memo. 2. All vouchers in support of classified abstract of Expd. (Form 48) have been received. 3. Opening cash balance agrees with the closing cash balance of the previous months. 4. All the schedules attached with the monthly accounts are in proper forms. 5. Totals of the service funds and other schedules are checked with the corresponding totals in the cash account. Proper classification has been recorded as per the demand for grants. Thereafter monthly accounts are compiled / posted in the detailed book and classified abstract is prepared. The classified abstract is passed on to the Book Section for booking of the amount under respective Head of Account. On receipt of Books Actual consolidated Abstract is prepared Major Head wise. Reconciliation: The controlling officers of the Forest Deptt. are required to depute their representative to the accountant General office for carrying out the reconciliation of & Revenue Figures in order to avoid recurrence of various types of defects / omissions and to set right misclassification, if any, through plus and minus memoranda.

Duties and responsibilities of: Treasury Officers, Drawing and Disbursing Officers, Controlling Officers Responsibilities of Treasury Officer:

• To watch the progress of expenditure before authorisation of payment to avoid may excess drawls over the provision of Funds.
• To prepare initial accounts on the basis of transaction records in the main as well as subsidiary books of accounts supposed to be maintained in the Treasury.
• To compile initial monthly accounts for submission to the state Accountant General. To see that the prescribed rules, procedure and instructions issued from time to time in connection with authorisation of payments acceptance of remittance, maintenance of records and compilation of monthly accounts are strictly followed.

Responsibilities of Drawing and Disbursing Officer:- Every DDO should exercise the same vigilance in R/o expenditure as a person of ordinary prudence would exercise in spending his own money. The DDO is responsible for seeing: -

• That the bills are prepared according to Rules
• That the expenditure is within the available appropriation
• All corrections and alteration in the total of bill should be attested by full signature of Drawing officer with date.
• The full accounts classification must be recorded on each bill by drawing officers.
• All the cheque-drawing DDOs should notify to the Treasury Officer the number of cheque books used as well as the number of cheques and to inform promptly the loss of cheque books. Responsibilities of Controlling officer It is imperative for the controlling officer as Heads of the departments to depute a party headed by an authorized departmental officers in accordance with provision contained in para 12.22 of chapter XII of J&K Budget Manual for reconciliation of expenditure for the current financial year so that progress of expenditure and misclassification of expenditure if any in grant (s)/ appropriation could be watched and set right.