NFPE writes to Department on decentralization of Pay Roll processing

National Federation of Postal Employees

1^st Floor North Avenue Post Office Building, New Delhi-110 001

Phone: 011.23092771                                                     e-mail: nfpehq@gmail.com

Mob: 9718686800/9319917295                     website: http://www.nfpe.blogspot.com

Ref:PF/NFPE/Pay                                                          Dated – 26.06.2020

To

The Secretary (Post),

Department of Posts,

New Delhi.

Sub: - Decentralization of Pay Roll processing-Reg.

Sir,

We would like to draw your kind attention that the proposal of CEPT, Mysuru with regard to pay roll processing and disbursement by the DDOs in the CSI System, the decentralization of Pay roll processing, which was being done successfully centrally at PAOs would defeat the very basis of IT modernization project of thousands of crores in DoP.

In this connection, it is submitted that the Centralized Salary payment and off-cycle payment was the decision of Postal Service Board and accordingly the same was already implemented in PAN India. Previously, the salary and other supplementary bill payments were being processed and paid by the respective DDOs at HO level. Later, DoP replaced Meghdoot Millennium software by CSI SAP in order to reduce expenditure by centralizing everything and to monitor all happenings centrally on real time basis. Not only that, DoP has already incurred huge cost to replace Meghdoot Millennium by CSl ERP system. It is relevant to mention that total disbursement of salary and pension worth thousands of crores per month happened seamlessly and smoothly in PAN India. Even in times of Corona Pandemic, payments (Salary & Pension) were timely credited into the individual accounts on last day of every month as per expectation of the Department, If it were to be done by respective DDOs, it would have been virtually impossible. Assigning the User and Role authentication to more number of users by decentralising the work will necessitate a separate monitoring mechanism leading to more manpower and expenditure.

In this context, we would like to refer para 3.1.1 of Civil Accounts Manual which states that “As a general rule, all payments in the departmentalized system of accounting are to be made only by Pay and Accounts offices of the Ministry/ Department after proper pre-check. This centralized payment has been implemented after introduction of CSI system on the proposed structure as prescribed by the Ministry of Finance. Consequent on implementation of CSI HRMS in all Circles and in accordance with Para 7.27 of DOP_CSI_HRMS Business Blue Print, the Pay roll work was centralized at PAOs since the inception of CSI software in DoP. This is in accordance with Business Blue Book and Established procedure and approved SOP, by the Postal Service Board. It would not be out of place to mention here that there are several issues in CSI-HR Payroll such as ESS portal which is not accessible at all the times by the employees and hence all the salary data entries are uploaded by the DDOs in PA3O. Besides there is a bandwidth problem in SIFY network in almost all circles. Remote locations face greater difficulty in access and there are TNF locations also. Solutions of such issues are still awaited.

Though the centralized payment system is in a transitional period still it can be emphatically stated that the following benefits can be achieved:

1.    Efficient ESS portal works will enable us to monitor centrally at PAC level all employee related issues can be easily tackled.

2.    No manual maintenance of data anywhere.

3.    Retroactive calculation is done away with.

4.    Integration of Payroll with personal information system and accounting is an added advantage.

5.    Cash management product is brought into the system.

6.    Exceptional improvement in NPS uploads.

7.    Immediate payroll reconciliation with Bank reconciliation.

8.    Close monitoring of Budget in ceiling item heads.

9.    Auto generation of Form 16 and Form 24Q for Income Tax requirements.

10. Pre-audit of monthly payments is only possible in centralized CSI HRMS environment before disbursement. In Decentralize mode, chances of irregular payments are there as there is no pre-check.

In a nutshell, when our Department is striving hard towards modernization and digitalization of HR, the proposed decentralization of Payroll processing and payment works from PAOs to DDOs level will be a retrograde action defeating the very purpose of Human Resource Management in terms of Economy, Efficiency & Efficacy. This step if allowed amounts to trespassing into financial and accounting functions. This reversal act of Pay roll processing will lead to loss of time, wastage of human resources and drain of several crores of rupees from the government Exchequer.

It is therefore requested to kindly intervene and review the decision of CEPT on the subject matter and the disbursement of Pay roll and Pension be continued to be executed centralized at PAOs.

With regards,

Yours sincerely,

(R. N. Parashar)

Secretary General