AP to implement e-gov initiative for financial management

As part of its e-governance initiatives, the Andhra Pradesh government would soon put in place an IT-enabled platform to make the entire system of payments and disbursements online.
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, known for his IT-savvy ways, held a meeting with finance department officials on the plan to implement the Comprehensive Financial Management System (CFMS), a state government release said here today.
The CFMS aims to make payment of salaries, expenditure and budget management, disbursement of funds for public welfare schemes and works, debt information and accounts online, it said.
This will be implemented on a pilot basis in Guntur and Chitoor districts from this month.

In the remaining offices, it will be done in a phased manner by June 2015. The chief minister has given a nod to decentralise public finances management.
"This means there will be no drawing officers. Currently, the state has 40,850 drawing officers, 280 HODs (Heads of Departments) and establishment staff who are disbursing funds for 5.8 lakh employees and 2.3 lakh pensioners in the state.

"The CFMS will rid the government officials of tedious work of manually sending bills to the treasury and waiting for 4-5 days to clear them," the release said.
According to finance department, the CFMS includes digitising the employees' service register.

The CFMS would help in better planning of the state budget by giving real-time information on the available finances and allot budget to sectors based on priority.
In districts, the chief minister suggested the appointment of a finance manager under the supervision of collector. The finance manager will keep an eye on district finances and detect misappropriation of funds.