While Covid-19 posed serious challenges for Odisha’s economy, the State Government undertook several major reforms during the pandemic which are yielding positive results.
The Government used the pandemic as an opportunity to introduce the reforms to facilitate citizen-centric services, for which people in general and employees as well as former employees in particular are reaping the benefits, say officials.
The latest report on financial reforms reveals that during the lockdown period, online processing of electronic bills by Treasuries were introduced and implementation of Single Page Salary Bill was taken up.
While Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik green-signalled various financial reforms under the 5T Initiative, Principal Secretary Finance, Ashok Kumar Meena implemented the reforms, said a senior official.
Introduction of Single Page Salary Bill is saving tonnes of papers and saving cutting of lakhs of trees and it has come as a time saver for both people and officers as well.
The Government also introduced a Global Allotment System in respect of salary and personal advances to ensure timely disbursement of salary.
While timely disbursement of salary was one of the major problems for the authorities; now with introduction of the system, the authorities are ensuring timely payment of salary, admit officials.
Introduction of Electronic Book of Drawal Facility in an Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) for submission of bills to the Treasuries to eliminate the physical visit has come as a great relief for the people. The Government introduced IFMS mobile application and launched a new web portal.
This is to provide specific information such as Challan status, Provident Fund status and several other information required by the employees.
Stakeholders including citizens, pensioners, and administrative department users are reaping the benefits.
The web portal is user-friendly and more informative for IFMS users and citizens.
Similarly, the Finance Department introduced a Drawing Disbursing Officer (DDO) Management Module in the IFMS for online allotment of DDO Code and updating of DDO details in IFMS-Odisha.