Govt develops system to track fund usage by 25 lakh agencies

Undertaking the largest fund monitoring exercise in the world, the government is developing a web-based online tracking system to oversee utilisation of funds worth Rs 5 lakh crore under various Central schemes.
The Public Finance Management System (PFMS), which is being developed by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) and National Informatics Centre (NIC), will have a database of 25 lakh implementing agencies to track fund utilisation under planned schemes.
The system, developed indigenously without support from any foreign agency, will enhance public accountability in the implementation of plan schemes. PFMS will track expenditure of funds on real time basis, which can also be accessed by the general public.

It is inspired by social welfare programmes in Brazil, the US and South Africa.
The central plan scheme monitoring system already has created a database of 17 lakh implementing agencies, which are involved in executing various government initiatives, sources said.
The system will provide a financial management platform for all plan schemes, database of all recipient agencies and their integration with core banking solution of banks handling plan funds, integration with state treasuries, they added.

It will also help in efficiently and effectively tracking fund flow to the lowest level of implementation for Plan schemes of the government.
The platform aims to provide information across all plan schemes/implementation agencies in India on fund utilisation leading to better monitoring, review and decision.

Last year in December, the Cabinet had approved rollout of the Plan Accounting and Public Finance Management System (PA&PFMS) -- Central Plan Scheme Monitoring System (CPSMS) -- over a period of four years till 2017 with a total outlay of Rs 1,080 crore.
The system will also develop an interface between RBI and states to interlink fund releases received from the centre to states, states to districts treasury/division/blocks.
Last year in June, the government approved the Planning Commission's proposal to restructure 147 Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS0 and Additional Central Assistance (ACA) into 66 schemes (including 17 flagship programmes), sources said.

"PFMS aims to track almost Rs 5 lakh crore under these schemes," they added.
The only external assistance was from software giant Microsoft and industry experts, which did a system requirement study (SRS) for the platform.
PFMS is inspired by the social welfare program of Brazil -- Bolsa Familia --, US government's recovery.Gov, which tracks the distribution and spending of Hurricane Sandy funds and other Federal funds. It also studied fund implementation initiatives of the South African government.