Port Blair, Dec. 6: The Organised Accounts Cadre Service of the Andaman & Nicobar Administration is observing the Third A&N Civil Accounts Day on 7th December, 2020.
The Andaman and Nicobar Accounts cadre was born in the backdrop and premise of separation of Audit from Accounts in 1980. After its creation, the Accounts cadre has taken the mantle of management of financial resources entirely upon its shoulders. Infact the entire budget of Andaman & Nicobar is projected, formulated and released apart from imposing the cardinal rules derived from the General Financial Rules by the Accounts cadre.
The service also provides internal finance mechanism and manpower to all departments within the A&N Administration apart from the PRI’s and autonomous bodies such as the PBMC. Some of the major departments include APWD, Electricity, Health, Education, Shipping, PRI’s, Transport and Forest where the internal finance is manned by the Accounts cadre.
It provides their function in the form of advisory, accounting, auditing, budgeting, payments and concurrence of all proposals with financial implications.
The Accounts cadre also has a Local Fund Audit team which focuses on auditing of local funds at the disposal of the PRI’s. This ensures robust implementation of various grants and schemes for the welfare of the rural populace.
The cadre also has a strong presence in the PBMC which has transitioned itself in the light of Digital India initiatives and has showcased PBMC in a new light.
The Accounts cadre is also a vital arm of divisions of PWD and Forest department which is spread across the Islands from the North to South even catering to tribal landscape.
The entire budgeting of the Islands is shouldered by the Accounts cadre which is handling an annual budget of more than Rs.4500 crores and is also responsible for expenditure in tandem with a plethora of cardinal rules designed for financial prudence and propriety.
The Pay & Accounts Offices and the Sub-PAO’s cater to the payment and accounting functions and are spread across the Islands from Port Blair, Rangat, Mayabunder to Diglipur and Car Nicobar, Nancowry and Campbell Bay. All the salaries, wages, personal claims, GPF and pension is handled though these Offices.
The pension wing handles all the pension related cases and is providing a commendable service in ensuring timely finalisation of pension of the Govt servants retiring from the A&N Administration.
During the current year, the officers of the Cadre have taken up the mantle to implement the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) in the accounting work sphere of the Administration. With the dedicated and able team of officers, the different module of the PFMS viz Employee Information System (EIS), DBT module, EAT module are being implemented across the Islands. The PAO, Port Blair has successfully got it implemented from 1st October, 2020 onwards. The PAOs at Rangat and CarNicobar with sheer dedication of the Officers posted at these locations has successfully onboarded all DDOs to PFMS for EIS module. Further, the Officers of the Accounts cadre are playing vital role in bringing all the social benefit schemes, subsidies etc under DBT framework so that benefits may reach to genuine beneficiary.
The cadre is looking forward to extend its full support to all such new endeavours of Govt. of India and A&N Administration. Although, challenges remains such as Freedom to dissent and objective implementation of cardinal rules, Strengthening and expansion of posts and the non-implementation of recommendation of 7th CPC in some cases which is still elusive.
The President, General Secretary and the entire Executive Committee of the Staff Council have extended their best wishes to all its staff members on the occasions of the A&N Civil Accounts Day. The members have been urged to work dedicatedly with utmost sincerity and honesty.