Union Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa today reviewed the progress of the proposed roll out of the Public Financial Management System (PFMS), administered by the Controller General of Accounts, with Chief Secretaries of the States of Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
M J Joseph, Controller General of Accounts (CGA) and other senior officials attended the meeting, said an official release.
PFMS provides an end-to-end solution for processing payments, tracking, monitoring, accounting, reconciliation and reporting of transactions. The system provides scheme managers a unified platform for tracking releases of funds to implementing agencies and monitoring their last mile utilization.
The objective of Government of India is to promote fiscal discipline in both the Union and State Governments and greater transparency in the fund flow management of various schemes implemented by States.
"Efficient utilization of resources and establishing a transparent mechanism to transfer resources and track the transactions till the benefits reach the target recipients is the objective of the PFMS", the Finance Secretary said.
At various review meetings, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emphasized on the need for better utilization of central funds transferred to the state governments and their implementing agencies.
In this context, it has been decided that PFMS will be tasked to develop and implement a system that facilitates 'Just in Time' (JIT) release of funds and complete monitoring of end usage of funds up to the last beneficiary, a release said.
The state governments play an important role in attaining these objectives through integration of their state treasuries with PFMS.
During the review meeting, States indicated the level of preparedness of treasury integration with PFMS.
Gaps in implementation were also identified and necessary support mechanisms for full roll out in a time bound manner were discussed, it said.
Central Government would provide financial assistance for computerisation of State treasuries and training of personnel.
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