WE THE PEOPLE
Non-maintenance of GP Fund accounts of subscribers has led to missing credits of Rs 11 crores, thereby putting them to hardships
Hence employees demand probe, urge adherence to guidelines of GP Fund Manual to end their miseries
By: Zedan Ali Khan
Srinagar: As stated in our preceding article, the transfer of GP Fund accounts of the State employees from Accountant General’s Office to General Provident Fund Organization in March 1984 has not served the desired purpose and failed to provided any relief to them so far.
The position of credits (subscriptions), debits (withdrawals and advances), interest accrued and balance of GP Fund for the years 2002-03 to 2006-07 as per the figures supplied by the department were based on the Divisional Fund Offices Jammu and Srinagar and were tentative as the general squaring of the broadsheets at District and Divisional levels had not been completed.
Against a balance of Rs. 1928.64 crore ending March 2003, the Department had carried forward Rs. 1858.40 crore as opening balance for the year 2003-04. Though the department detected the discrepancy after the figure for 2003-04 had been received by it, no action had been taken to reconcile the figure as of November 2007.
As per J&K GP Fund Manual, credits/debits posted in the ledger account of individual subscribers are to be posted in the Unit Broad Sheet on the basis of the monthly accounts received from the treasuries. All entries in the Unit Broad Sheets are thereafter, required to be crosschecked with the monthly schedules/debit vouchers received from treasuries to ascertain correctness of the figures entered in the Ledger Accounts of individual subscribers. Thus, the figures of Unit Broad Sheets become the basis for maintenance of Broadsheets at District and Directorate level.
It is disheartening to observe that test check of records of 14 Fund Offices and Directorate Office revealed that two offices District Fund Offices Baramulla and Srinagar had not maintained the Unit Broad Sheet at all, while in ten District Fund Offices: Anantnag, Class-IV Jammu, Jammu, Kathua, Kupwara, Migrant Cell Jammu, Poonch, Pulwama, Rajouri and Udhampur offices the Broad sheets were maintained without complete posting and squaring, without which, it cannot be ensured that the ledger figures were correctly posted from the accounts and agreed with the District compiler’s figures. Non-maintenance of Broad sheets is bound to lead to excess/short credits/debits remaining undetected in the ledger accounts of the subscribers and incorrect furnishing of interest figures of the Account General for adoption in the accounts.
It is shocking to learn that the Director has intimated that maintenance of some Unit Broad Sheets had been dispensed with due to shortage of staff and that units concerned have been directed to ensure its proper maintenance. The reply regarding non-maintenance of the Broad sheets is not tenable, as no permission for dispensing with the Broad sheet had been obtained from the Finance Department.
Paragraphs 5.13 and 5.15 of GP Fund Manual provide that District Fund Offices while compiling the fund accounts received from the treasuries should ensure that no credit schedule/debit voucher in support of the monthly account is missing. In case a schedule/voucher is missing, the District Fund Officer shall immediately take up the case with the Treasury Officer concerned to obtain a written confirmation and details about the same. Further, in case of any missing schedule/voucher, duplicate copies thereof shall be obtained from the Drawing and Disbursing Officers concerned to avoid non-accountal of any credits/debits in the individual GPF accounts.
Scrutiny (January 2007) of records revealed that accounts submitted by Treasury Officers were incomplete due to missing vouchers, supporting details, etc. which resulted in the progressive accumulation of un posted debits of Rs. 28.97 lakh and credits of Rs. 10.93 crore between April 1986 and March 2007 and consequent missing credits/debits in the accounts of subscribers. The required written confirmation was neither insisted upon nor were the details of missing schedules/vouchers obtained by District Fund Officers which was indicative of non-observance of procedures envisaged in GP Fund Manual.
Hence employees demand probe, urge adherence to guidelines of GP Fund Manual to end their miseries. The most affected class being Retired employees, to whom the DFOs are insisting that they should produce all the debit/credit statements for the period from 1 April 1986 to the date of retirement from the respective DDOs for settlement of their final claims, which is not only contrary to the provisions of the GP Fund rules, but is also resulting in their hardships in a big way.
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