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IT at Rajasthan’s finance department

Chirasrota Jena relates how the Rajasthan state government brought transparency to its finance department and did away with pensioner queues

The finance department of the Rajasthan state government is responsible for overseeing budgets, expenditure, public investment and taxation throughout the state. It also deals with all matters related to state finances including recruitment, appointment and promotions of officials in the Rajasthan Accounts Service, Excise Service and Commercial Taxes Service. The department guides various departments in matters such as General Financial and Accounts Rules (GF&AR) with regard to the framing of rules and amendments in keeping with the changing times to bring about efficient finance administration. A few other departments also function under the ambit of the finance department—audit and inspection, revenue, legal and expenditure.

Maintaining a balance

The department’s work goes on across the state. It is charged with ensuring the integrity of the information gathered and generated at all these locations, while maintaining the delicate balance between privacy and transparency. Says P R Sharma, Director, Treasury and Accounts, Rajasthan State Finance Department, “While accessing data the department faced problems such as extra time being required to search for a particular document from piled-up files. Extra manpower was always needed to do any kind of accounts-related work, audits and budget preparation in the treasury and sub-treasuries. We wanted to make the system faster and ensure smooth functioning of the department.”

As the problems were acute, everyone in the department from the top-level officials to the junior-most were thinking about a system that would help them and make their work easier. The proposed system had to eliminate repetitive and time-consuming processes in pension disbursement and accounts auditing. Because state departments are interlinked, there was a need for a central system to help end-users access data across departments whenever it was required.

Explains Sharma, “The manual system for document handling involved the physical management of documents. If a file had to be approved by an officer, all the associated documents containing remarks from other officers who had forwarded the file also needed to be taken to the concerned officer. File handling was extremely cumbersome, and there was always the risk of losing in transit documents which might be vital to the file. Considerable effort was needed to search and compile relevant information for a file. The finance department is involved with a lot of secret documents that need proper care, so the manual transfer of files and sensitive data such as budget preparation also needed proper security. Moreover, there was a requirement for transparency in the finance department.”

Treasury management system

The Rajasthan Government therefore implemented a comprehensive treasury management system to cater to the requirements of the finance department, the director of treasuries and accounts (DTA), and the accountant general (AG) of Rajasthan. For this implementation the state government selected Oracle’s database. The association of Oracle with the National Informatics Centre made the department think of deploying its database at the backend. According to Sharma, “The vendor has several years of experience in this field. We wanted a reliable solution with a good return on investment—which we got. The after-sales and service support was also good. The software has the capability to smoothly handle large databases, and since we are dealing with accounts and finances it has really helped us. It also has multi-user facilities and a proven record of stable performance.”

Oracle—with the help of NIC—has solved the problems of the various concerned departments with improved data integrity and security by deploying the Oracle Database platform as a central repository for the entire department’s financial information. Oracle Database 7 was implemented initially, but later the software vendor upgraded the database to Oracle 9i. Sharma explains, “At that time Oracle 7 was the latest version so we deployed that database, but now we have upgraded it to 9i. Nearly about 600 employees of 39 offices of the state government under the finance department are using the centralised system.”

Although Oracle has deployed its databases in sectors ranging from government to corporate houses, solving the problems of the state finance department posed a major challenge. Recalls S P S Grover, VP, Sales, Oracle India, “Employees were relying on hardcopy documents, which required a lot of time and manpower for accessing data. With the deployment of the Oracle database, the management of data, disbursement of pensions and coordination between different departments is easier and simpler. There is transparency within the system. We have implemented the solution along with our partner NIC. NIC has provided front-end support to the client.”

During the deployment Oracle had to keep in mind the comfort level of the employees. On the challenges Oracle came across Grover has this to say, “Though the attitudes of the employees of the concerned departments were open, we had to be concerned about the typical mind-set of the employees. We had to explain about change management, and NIC gave them technical training. The hardware deployment was also done with the help of NIC. We had no role in this. As a result of this deployment their overall expenses have gone down and there is a smooth flow of information between departments.”

No more long queues

End-users have benefited from a smooth flow of data between treasury divisions, the finance department, DTA and the AG. Informs Sharma, “The integrated treasury management platform lets authorised users across participating agencies access legacy data that has been consolidated into a single Oracle database. The systems also introduced computerised procedures and defined process guidelines to replace the previous workplace ethos of manual processing, thus reducing reliance on hardcopy documents.” These benefits were evident just two months after the deployment. Expenditure and revenue statements are readily available now. The service provided by the treasury to the common masses has also improved—now there are no long queues to be found in front of the pension disbursement office.

Details Sharma, “Post-deployment benefits came in the form of lower overhead expenses as a result of improved management and better deployment of resources. We were able to recognise the return on investment. The solution has ensured compliance with regulatory guidelines through timely submission of accounts and easier auditing, and has also improved staff morale by simplifying work processes and providing opportunities to expand employee skills. Total digitalisation has encouraged open discussion between users, leading to important modifications and enhancements to the software.”

The system has reduced costs, and helped the treasury, sub-treasuries and budget preparation departments that are now better placed to accommodate the growth of data.