In a stern warning to top bureaucrats and all the Heads of Department in the Delhi Government, Chief Secretary has asked them to expedite the functioning of their respective departments and exercise financial powers instead of routing all the files to Finance Department.
Irrationally routing of files to the Finance Department has stalled development projects, alleged the top bureaucrat. He said this warning was being issued with prior concurrence of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.
In his first strongly worded office memorandum, Chief Secretary KK Sharma said many HODs were not exercising their powers and were sending files to the Finance Department for concurrence which was leading to delay in implementation of developmental works, social welfare measures and other programmes.
It would be pertinent to mention that HoDs have power to spend up to Rs10 crore for their requirement. But it has been seen that HoDs are preferred to refer matter to the Finance Department for approval. And on the other hand, Finance Department deliberately delay such proposals or approval which is less than Rs10 crore. The officials said they are worried a lot in the current administrative system where there is no protection to them and they are not comfortable with any such proposal fearing backlash from the Government.
The memorandum, approved by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, said, “It has come to the notice of the Government that many HODs are not exercising the powers delegated to them and they routinely send the files to the Finance Department for concurrence which leads to delay in implementation of development works, social welfare measures and other programmes…It has also come to notice that the matters like acceptance of lowest bid in an open tender are being referred to the ED.”
Quoting the provisions laid down in Rule-26 of Transaction of Business of Government of NCT of Delhi, read with Rule-5, the memorandum said the departments were required to consult the Finance Department only in those matters in which FD’s prior concurrence was necessary, whether such proposals have financial bearing involving expenditure or otherwise.
The Chief Secretary had also drawn attention of all his HODs towards provisions laid down in Chapter 5 of the General Financial Rules, 2005 (Procurement of Goods and Services) wherein it has been stated that every authority delegated with the financial powers of procuring goods or services in public interest shall have the v responsibility and accountability to bring efficiency, economy and transparency in matters relating to public procurement, and for fair and equitable treatment of suppliers, and promotion of competition in public procurement. “Hence the proposals which are within the delegated powers of HODs shall not be referred to the FD for seeking concurrence.”
The issuing of the terse memorandum to all the HODs has once again brought to light the fact that many senior bureaucrats were not taking any decision in writing as they fear that they could face the wrath of the Centre for not following Transaction of Business Rules. Also, severe shortage of officers of the rank of principal secretaries and secretaries had slowed down the decision making process in the city.
Among the principal secretaries working with the AAP Government are Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s staff officer, who is also link officer of finance, Rajendra Kumar, Arvind Ray in General Administration, S N Sahai in Finance, Anindo Majumdar in the Delhi Finance Commission and Parimal Rai in Transport department. Rai has gone on 15-day leave. Other Principal Secretaries Shakuntala B Gamlin and Chetan B Sanghi are on long leave and are reportedly not willing to work with the AAP Government. There are only dozen of secretary level officers in the Government.