KOLKATA: The Bengal government has taken up the crucial move to go for a major up-gradation of the state's Integrated Finance Management System (IFMS) by making the system more convenient that will ensure effective outcomes in comparatively lesser time.
The web-based IFMS was introduced in 2014 for better administrative, fiscal and budgetary control over the receipts and expenditures of the state. With the state Finance department as the nodal agency the centralised online system had integrated all departments, directorates, regional, district and block offices including drawing and disbursing officers, treasuries, public account administrators and employees.
The most significant part of the IFMS is that it acts as an online and round-the-clock real time platform for execution of any related tasks for all stakeholders including all state government departments, autonomous bodies, treasuries, directorate of pension, provident fund and group insurance, Finance department's budget section and above all pensioners, stamp vendors and taxpayers.
Even the pension of fishermen, artisans and weavers under the Jai Bangla scheme now also take place through IFMS.
Various facilities were incorporated in IFMS in phases and it acted as the foundation to bring international fame to the Mamata Banerjee government by ensuring cent percent e-governance in a record time when many other states were in the planning stage to implement the same.
According to a senior state government officer, a step has been taken for systematic improvement of the state's IFMS to make it more robust and "department friendly" to further speed up the task undertaken.
Considering that already the stakeholders are using the system for more than the past six years, they have been asked to give their report mentioning the "cumbersome" in any process of the system.
Sources said Principal Secretary of the state Finance department Manoj Pant has already written to all departments of the state government in this regard asking them to send them their feedback and suggestions related to all the seven modules of the IFMS.
The modules are e-Bantan (electronic allocation of funds), HRMS (Human Resource Management System), GRIPS (Government Receipt Portal System), etc.
"It will further simplify the processes for better results and more effective outcomes in comparatively lesser time. It will also help in checking duplication of labour as entry of the same data multiple times can be avoided," the officer said.
Citing an example, the officer said that the state government has checked the annual loss of Rs 130 crore that had been taking place for decades before implementing IFMS. It came into notice only after the initial few years of its introduction that allowed online disbursement of salary for around 7 lakh teachers of schools and colleges and employees of autonomous bodies like municipalities.
An additional Rs 130 crore every year, apart from the total salary amount of the employees, used to get drained out of the state's exchequer just for the system of paying salary through cheques as bankers commission of 0.1 per cent had to be paid to the concerned bank for "handling of the cash".