Salaries are unlikely to be creditedinto the accounts ofgovernment staff until February 10 or even February 12 in case the government employees goonstrike from February 7.
The State government has directed the Treasury Department to give priority to the police and judiciary while approving the salary bills generated by the Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs). Salaries might be credited for these employees but not to all, said an official requesting anonymity.
According to sources, the problem liesin the implementation of the new Pay Revision Commission (PRC) guidelines. The DDOs have to prepare the salary bills ofaround4 lakh employees. The salary of each employee as on July 1, 2018, subsequent increments, etc. have to be verified by the DDOs. The data and service record (SR) has to be verified by the DDOs and submitted to the Treasury. The Treasury officials,such asthe Sub-Treasury Officer (STO) or Assistant Treasury Officer (ATO) or Deputy Director would then verify the details.
This entire process of implementing the new PRC takes no less than three to four months. However, the DDOs, so far,have notprocessed more than 20% of the total data. The Treasury offices across the State could process and confirm only 10% of the data submitted. The Treasury officers also have to check the SR and data presented by the DDOs. For instance, in a district that hasaround 26,000 employees in all, the data pertaining to only 4,000was submitted, of which the Treasury could confirm the data of only 2,000 employees.
There is still a lot of work left after confirmation of the data. The DDOs have to prepare the salary bills, and send the same to the Treasury for approval. It is a highly cumbersome process, say sources.
Going by the current pace of work, it would take a minimum of 15 days as all the records have to be checked manually. The onus lies on the DDOs and STOs in ensuring the accuracy in fixation of salary of each employee as per the new PRC. So, the DDOs and STOs would also be doubly cautious to avoid discrepancies, an official said.
There are around 100 DDOs in the State. On average, they prepare about 120 to 130 salary bills per month. Each officer processes one salary bill, while a few preparetwo, taking the total number of bills processed to 120-130 per month. The bills have to be presented before the 25th of every month. This is to ensure that the Treasury has ample time to check and verify the bills, an official said.
