The TSA system will allow us to know the daily status of the government's treasury. It will also help us to direct unspent funds remaining with government offices towards other productive projects.
KATHMANDU, SEP 23 - The Office of the Financial Comptroller General (OFCG) is working to introduce a single account system to make payments for projects completed by various government offices.
The system, called Treasury Single Account (TSA), is scheduled to start Oct. 20 in Lalitpur and Bhaktapur districts as pilot projects.
Under the TSA, government offices in the districts will not operate their own bank accounts. Instead, they will recommend to the District Treasury controller Office to issue payment for projects completed by the various offices in the district.
"The TSA system will allow us to know the daily status of the government's treasury," said Bharat Prasad Poudel, deputy financial comptroller general. "It will also help us to direct unspent funds remaining with government offices towards other productive projects."
Presently, the Ministry of Finance does not know which offices have spent how much. Officials say there is a tradition among some offices to hold on to large sums of money even though they have failed to spend the sanctioned budget.
With the District Treasury Office holding the purse strings, it can issue payment on the basis of completed projects, officials said. The office will report daily to the OFCG.
According to the OFCG, there are 3,300 government offices across the country operating 14,000 bank accounts. Each office generally maintains at least four accounts for recurrent and capital expenditures, bail and revenue.
There are 132 offices in Lalitpur and 47 offices in Bhaktapur which have separate bank accounts.
An OFCG official said that implementation of the TSA system could, however, be complicated as the various offices need to designate personnel to deliver their letters to the District Treasury Office to receive cheques.
"Some local offices have made such a complaint," he added.
The OFCG is now providing training to government employees to operate the TSA system effectively.
"We will expand it to other districts as per the experience gained from the pilot projects," said Poudel.
The TSA system will allow us to know the daily status of the government's treasury. It will also help us to direct unspent funds remaining with government offices towards other productive projects.
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