J&K govt sets up Complaint Redressal Cell in treasury dept

The Jammu and Kashmir government has set up a Complaint Redressal Cell (CRC) to look into complaints against any staff in the Accounts and Treasury Department with regard to pending claims.
"A Complaint Redressal Cell (CRC) has been formed to address any grievance against any staff member of the Accounts and Treasury department with regard to pending claims in treasuries," Altaf Hasan Mirza, Director General - Accounts and Treasuries, Finance Department, said.
"In case any body has any grievance against any staff member of the treasury he/she is requested to send the message through SMS or e-mail on the following numbers," he added.

Mirza said that as far as possible, the complaint or grievance should be specific and not general type and vague, he added.
He said the complainant should give his name, details of the employee against whom complaining and reference to the claim pending at treasuries.
It is for the information of public that the working in most of the treasuries of the state has been made online (computerised) and the finance department is in the process of making online payments at all the treasures in the very near future, he added.

The Director General informed that the payments at the treasuries both in case of online and offline are being made strictly on the pattern of First In First Out (FIFO). "The claims in the shape of bills/cheques representing payments under various objects of expenditure like salaries, pensions, GP Fund, works, material and supplies, relief, gratuity commutation etc which are received by the treasury officers during the day are scrutinised by them for verifying if the payments are covered under codal provisions and proper budget provision," he added.

He said that each Treasury Officer submits list of object wise liabilities in respect of those cheques/bills which are fit for payment in a consolidated form to the Finance Department through their respective provincial directors at the end of every day.
The Treasuries Officer are mandated to make the payments
to the extent of amount authorised against a particular object of expenditure approved by the committee, Mirza said.
He added that the treasury officers can in no case authorise payment against an object of expenditure for which the Finance Department has not allowed him to make the payment. The working of treasury officers is being constantly monitored by the provincial Directors, he said.

"Since in respect of some objects of expenditure like GP fund, gratuity commutation, contractor and firms etc, the Finance Department is not able to clear the liabilities on a daily basis in view of financial constraints the liabilities are cleared in a phased manner and the treasury officers are authorised to release the payment of the bills and cheques upto a particular date following the principle of (FIFO)".
DG Accounts and Treasuries Finance Department also said that it has come to the notice of the Finance Department that the claimants are approaching different quarters and exerting pressure for release of their payments by jumping the queue.

"Exploitation of certain claimants at different levels have also come to the notice of the Finance Department in the garb of out of turn release of payments," he added. So the general public particularly the claimants are requested not to pursue their payments at any level including the treasuries as the same be credited to their respective bank accounts as and when the payments are authorised by the Finance Department.
However, they are requested to obtain proper receipt from treasury for their instruments, he added.