At the outset Financial Commissioner, Finance informed the meeting about numerous steps taken by the Finance Department to curb financial irregularities, thus, reducing the scope of processes that breed corruption. It was mentioned that it is now mandatory for all government departments to execute projects/ works only through e-tendering, make purchases through Government e- Marketplace (GeM), generate bills on JK Payment System (Pay Sys) portal, and make payments through Aadhar seeded Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), besides, ensuring geo-tagging of the created assets alongwith their photographs.
It was further mentioned that no payment for any work is being released without accord of administrative approval and technical sanction of the work. Besides, Finance Department is also bringing out a compendium of new instructions, issued in this regard by the department. The Chief Secretary, while naming a few departments figuring as highly vulnerable to corruption, urged the departments to promote transparency and accountability, follow model practices and carry out systemic reforms to curb corruption in the governance system.
The Chief Secretary asked Secretaries to suggest measures to check corruption in their departments within a week. Reiterating the government’s resolve of zero tolerance towards non adherence to rules, illegal commission-omission of acts by departments, Chief Secretary asked the officers to additionally address the procedural side of corruption which surfaces due to lack of codification of rules, and scarce technological interventions at field offices paired with dearth of human resource development programmes for capacity building of government employees.