Faster Government Funds Deployment
Faster Government Funds Deployment
1. After any funds disbursal announcement is made by Central Government, funds disbursal must begin within 3 months. If not feasible, the announcement shouldn’t be made.
2. The program management teams for funds disbursal, guidelines and oversight should be already set up at the time of announcement
3. A state/city/village funds utilization and reporting model must be set up in cases where the funds are to go via states/cities/villages
4. In the state funds disbursal program, Chief Secretary of the State should be the Executive point of contact for accountability and execution
5. For city/district level funds disbursal, the District Collector/Magistrate a commission should be the Executive point of contact for accountability and execution.
6. Government departments could start using and mandating ERP software like SAP/Oracle by all states to effectively monitor all stages of work, which includes planning to execution, cost analysis to wastages etc.
7. There could be a software workflow system in place which should allow releasing funds only after all the pre requirements/prior status of the prior process/step is green
8. There should also be an effective mechanism to immediately release funds in emergency/critical cases. One good illustration is release of dengue funds by Delhi Government in late September. By the time funds were released, dengue virus was at its peak
9. The execution team should consist of people who have technical as well as practical experience of the field
10. The team should also have the knowledge of local demands and its priority
11. For all ad-hoc funds requests, like in private organizations, there has to be proposal using common templates with the deliverables, timelines, total costs and phase wise fund requirements clearly laid out.
12. Proposals must be sought from each department with viable projects indicating urgency and instalment schedules in the first month of each year
13. Cost and time overruns are to be strictly punished if it is found to be unjustified. The officials should face the risk of getting disassociated from the schemes and punished with freezing of salary increments,, promotions etc.
14. The accounting of funds is to be checked by externally appointed auditors, not connected to the funds disbursal agency
15. The funds for annual programs should be released latest by the end of first quarter so that there is enough time to implement the plans
16. Funds should be released in 3 to 5 instalments only upon getting certificate of utilization up to 90% of the previous instalment. more