FINANCE COMMISSION SEEKS AN EMPLOYEE CENSUS
GANGTOK, 06 Nov: What was long feared but never spoken aloud or even enquired into much has now been given a firm stamp of confirmation by none other than the central government itself in the form of the 13th Finance Commission.
More than half of the budget of the state government goes into paying salaries and other emoluments of government employees. In fact almost 65% of the total budget, both plan and non plan are utilized in the payment of salaries, pension etc by the various state departments and public sector units. In fact 21.25% of the plan budget and 42.47% of the non plan budget, which comes to over Rs.1200 crore, it is informed, goes into such expenditure on the part of the government. And what comes as an unpleasant surprise is the fact that with such a big chunk of the state budget utilized by employees the departments do not know the number of employees employed by them or in their payroll!
It is this particular peculiarity that has led the 13th Finance Commission to ask the state to conduct a state employees census and to build a data base of employees with various details. This task is now been undertaken by the Directorate of Economics, Statistics, Monitoring and Evaluation (DESME) of the state government. In fact it has been 2 months now that the census is underway. With so much exchequer’s money being utilized in the payment of salaries the state is required to build a database of anyone getting salary from the state exchequer. This will include all regular, MR, Work Charged, Ad hoc employees and those in the public sector units as well.
As of now very few departments are able to present an accurate figure of the number of employees in their payroll as a result of which the state government does not have an accurate figure of the number of employees engaged by it. In fact it is informed that most state governments would not be able to present this figure offhand. However in Sikkim this situation is more pronounced as some departments have, over the years, “refused” to divulge their figures. The state employees census being conducted by DESME, it is informed, will result in the establishment of a database which will finally be able to give a definite figure of the number of employees of each department and also the money being utilized by each department for payment of salaries, wages, gratuity and pensions etc.
DESME, it is informed, will build a dynamic database which will be updated daily along with a website. The software used will be able to track transfers we well. The programme is to be linked to the Pay and Accounts section to track employees through salaries. The database will include details of salaries, pension liabilities and also be able to forecast as to how much will be spent in the coming year. For this purpose a department wise census operation is being conducted. Those departments with frequent transfers of employees will be benefited with a mobile application where they will be required to just SMS the information concerning an employee’s transfer.
The census is a head count of all employees and other details which are being sought are date of appointment, qualification, postings, salary structure and cadre among others.
On a preliminary survey it has been ascertained by the directorate that there are over 26000 regular employees; over 11000 on Muster Roll; over 1700 work charged employees and over 600 ad hoc employees. The total of this cursory survey come to near 40,000 people on the government payroll.
GANGTOK, 06 Nov: What was long feared but never spoken aloud or even enquired into much has now been given a firm stamp of confirmation by none other than the central government itself in the form of the 13th Finance Commission.
More than half of the budget of the state government goes into paying salaries and other emoluments of government employees. In fact almost 65% of the total budget, both plan and non plan are utilized in the payment of salaries, pension etc by the various state departments and public sector units. In fact 21.25% of the plan budget and 42.47% of the non plan budget, which comes to over Rs.1200 crore, it is informed, goes into such expenditure on the part of the government. And what comes as an unpleasant surprise is the fact that with such a big chunk of the state budget utilized by employees the departments do not know the number of employees employed by them or in their payroll!
It is this particular peculiarity that has led the 13th Finance Commission to ask the state to conduct a state employees census and to build a data base of employees with various details. This task is now been undertaken by the Directorate of Economics, Statistics, Monitoring and Evaluation (DESME) of the state government. In fact it has been 2 months now that the census is underway. With so much exchequer’s money being utilized in the payment of salaries the state is required to build a database of anyone getting salary from the state exchequer. This will include all regular, MR, Work Charged, Ad hoc employees and those in the public sector units as well.
As of now very few departments are able to present an accurate figure of the number of employees in their payroll as a result of which the state government does not have an accurate figure of the number of employees engaged by it. In fact it is informed that most state governments would not be able to present this figure offhand. However in Sikkim this situation is more pronounced as some departments have, over the years, “refused” to divulge their figures. The state employees census being conducted by DESME, it is informed, will result in the establishment of a database which will finally be able to give a definite figure of the number of employees of each department and also the money being utilized by each department for payment of salaries, wages, gratuity and pensions etc.
DESME, it is informed, will build a dynamic database which will be updated daily along with a website. The software used will be able to track transfers we well. The programme is to be linked to the Pay and Accounts section to track employees through salaries. The database will include details of salaries, pension liabilities and also be able to forecast as to how much will be spent in the coming year. For this purpose a department wise census operation is being conducted. Those departments with frequent transfers of employees will be benefited with a mobile application where they will be required to just SMS the information concerning an employee’s transfer.
The census is a head count of all employees and other details which are being sought are date of appointment, qualification, postings, salary structure and cadre among others.
On a preliminary survey it has been ascertained by the directorate that there are over 26000 regular employees; over 11000 on Muster Roll; over 1700 work charged employees and over 600 ad hoc employees. The total of this cursory survey come to near 40,000 people on the government payroll.
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