Description of Project

Under the Orissa Public Sector Reform Programme, DFID supported the GoO initiative to implement an integrated Public Financial Management Reform Programme based on the World Bank’s State Financial Accountability Assessment (SFAA) that sets out the strengths and weakness in GoO’s public financial management. The GoO prepared a Development Action Plan in response to the SFAA’s recommendations with a detailed implementation plan. Priority actions under the DAP include Treasury Computerisation, which is a crucial element of the overall reform.

There were 30 District Treasuries and 6 Special Treasuries. The District Treasuries were supported by 125 Sub Treasuries at the block level - of which 119 are Banking and 6 are Non-Banking Sub-Treasuries. Most of the Treasuries operated manually; only 2-3 treasuries are computerised. No connectivity had been established among Treasuries/Sub-Treasuries. Every department in the state has several Drawing & Disbursement Officers (DDOs) who have been given the authority to present bills in the Treasuries for making disbursements, for example the Khurda Treasury has 208 DDOs who can present bills to the Treasury.

The existing manual cash management system suffered from the limitation of being unable to provide a mechanism for exercise of control or monitoring over expenditure at the treasury level, which in the present set up is the focal point of receipts and payments. DFID worked with GoO to computerize the treasury accounts. The successful implementation of treasury computerization expected to facilitate (i) better citizen services, (ii) better cash management, (iii) better accounting and financial control, (iv) better financial reporting and management information needs (v) and better interfaces with the banks, other departments and the Accountant General.