Himachal Chief Secretary VC Pharka on Thursday stressed on the need for providing online facility to all the Drawing & Disbursing Officers (DDOs) of the State during next four years so as to ensure cent-percent cashless transactions.
launching the World Bank aided 'HP Public Financial Management & Capacity Building Programme', here, he said the World Bank under this programme has assigned a loan of 36 million USD, whereas 20 percent would be borne by the State Government thereby making the project cost to Rs. 45 million USD.
The programme would be implemented between 2017 to 2022. He said Himachal Pradesh is the first State in the country to get this project as the State has the good linkage with World Bank which has appreciated various indicators of the state. He extended his gratitude to the World Bank Team for sanctioning this project.
Pharka said there is a need of good financial management, proper audit and utilization of funds. He said all Departments should be linked to e-procurement system which has already been started in Irrigation & Public Health and Public Works Departments.
The chief secretary said the problem of connectivity still remains in the remote areas of the State and the Information & Technology Department has put the efforts to sort out this problem by improving and expanding HIMSWAN across the State.
Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) Dr. Shrikant Baldi said that effective measures would be adopted for implementation of the project under the technical guidance of World Bank.
Principal Accountant General of Himachal Pradesh, Kulwant Singh, said that at present data was being received both manual and electronic modes and intended to automate this process to go paperless. He said pension record from 1946 has been fully digitized.