In line with its new fiscal consolidation plan, the government has begun work on a monitoring system with real-time data to ensure funds worth over R4 lakh crore released by the Centre under various schemes reach the intended beneficiaries.
So far the Central Plan Scheme Monitoring System (CPSMS) in the office of the Controller General of Accounts in the finance ministry has been tracking down funds only up to the bank and state treasury levels where one could find details of funds released to the states.
The expenditure finance committee under the finance ministry recently gave its nod for a ‘last-mile connectivity’ plan to ensure that within five years the fund-tracking system is expanded to see that the payment reaches the districts/blocks/village/panchayats and finally to the ultimate beneficiaries, official sources told FE.
Under the plan, all implementing agencies ? central and state government departments ?will have to submit comprehensive real-time data to CPSMS on expenditure of the government’s allocation right up to the beneficiaries by linking their database to that of e-payment mode of the Unique Identification Authority of India’s (UIDAI) aadhar card.
Importantly, they would have to reconcile their data with that of the core banking solution of all the banks.
They also would have to connect their data with state treasuries and the offices of the accountant general.
The final data ? now given only to the programme managers ?will soon be made available to the general public to encourage them to participate in evaluation of the efficiency of the schemes and in drafting policies, the sources said.
This will plug leakages and ensure the maintenance of a transparent accounting system scheme- and sector-wise and state-by-state, including funds released to NGOs and autonomous bodies.
Besides, it will help in looking at future budgeting of funds for these schemes and to restructure them to improve their efficiency or scrap them altogether if found ineffective.
Also, to curb wasteful expenditure, it has been decided that if funds of a particular scheme are to be released in installments, subsequent payments will be made only when the real-time data shows that the earlier installment has been utilised and has reached the beneficiaries.
So far, plan expenditure of funds meant the booking of the released funds from the Centre.
Significantly, in the new system, booking fund releases will be treated only as ‘transfer’ and they will be considered as ‘expenditure’ only when the funds reach the beneficiary.
The CPSMS ? announced by the government in 2008-09 and set up later by the Controller General of Accounts and the Planning Commission ? currently has more than 8 lakh agencies registered with it. The system is meant to cover 139 centrally-sponsored schemes and over 800 central sector schemes as well as state plans and additional central assistance.
Though it was primarily meant to cover the central schemes, several states are keen that even their welfare programmes are linked to a similar tracking facility, the sources said.
The pilot programme of the CPSMS was launched last fiscal for the Centre’s flagship schemes such as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana and National Rural Health Mission in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Punjab.
The other proactive states on the implementation front so far are Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, Orissa, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, the sources said.
