Technical glitch in PRIASoft delays bill clearance

Owing to a technical glitch in the Panchayati Raj Institutions Accounting Software (PRIASoft), bills for the works taken up under the 14th Finance Commission are pending for the last four to five months.

The failure to match the bank account numbers with the IFSC codes in PRIASoft’s Public Financial Management System portal, failure to include a few banks in the portal as well as failure to update the expenditure have all affected the generation and approval of bills.

The gram panchayats that had taken up the work on laying of pipelines, road development and other works under the 14th Finance Commission are waiting for the clearance of bills.

In the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) portal, only 4,934 gram panchayats of 6,021 have been registered.

In Chikkamagaluru district, out of 227 gram panchayats, 54 are pending for registration under the portal.

The registration is being cancelled citing reasons of ‘account not in use’ and ‘failure to furnish information’ among others.

An official in the Zilla Panchayat said, “The bills are approved and cleared
under the centralised system in the software. The details on expenditure, account number should be furnished on the PFMS portal.
Owing to the merger of some banks, the IFSC code has changed and the bank account numbers too have changed. Some banks have not been included in the portal, which has further delayed the process.”

A panchayat development officer said, “In the past, the bills for the works taken up under the 14th Finance Commission were maintained under the ‘Gandhi Sakshi Kayaka’ and the amount was paid through a cheque. Under the new system, the details on the technical and administrative approval, geo tag, photo, budget, agency has to be updated online. It is a lengthy procedure.”

Kalasa Gram Panchayat Member N B Santhosh said, “An amount of Rs 75 lakh under the 14th Finance Commission is lying pending in the gram panchayat. Due to a delay in clearance of the bills, the contractors are not showing keen interest in completing the work. The Zilla Panchayat officials should set right the problem at the earliest.”