Indian Railway Codes and Manuals-Administration and Finance-Chapter-11 (XI)

 







CHAPTER XI

DISALLOWANCES AND OBJECTIONS

Disallowances of Personal Claims:

1101.  Claims which are not susceptible of internal check will be returned by the Accounts  Officer to the officer submitting them for amendment or explanation.

1102.  Claims which are susceptible of internal check, though incorrect otherwise,   will be passed by the Accounts Officer for the correct amount, the amount not admitted being disallowed.   The amount of disallowance and  the reasons therefore should be intimated to the officer drawing the bill, with the least possible delay, for communication to the person concerned. When the sanction of a higher authority is necessary to the payment of an amount disallowed, it shall be duty of the officer drawing the bill to obtain such sanction before the amount disallowed is passed for payment.

1103.  Provisional payments.—Except in respect of staff governed   by Payment of Wages Act,   no provisional payment shall be made without a request received from the authority competent finally to sanction  the payment and the request should specify a definite period (not exceeding three months) for   which provisional payments should continue in anticipation of sanction.    This is specially necessary when the provisional  payments is one in favour of the Paying  Officer   himself.     As regards the staff governed   by   Payment of Wages Act   where delay in payment is likely to infringe the Act, ex-post facto   request by  the competent  authority should be made at the earliest opportunity if there is no time for prior request.

Note:-(i) In very emergent circumstances where the G. M. considers that provisional payment has to be made in the case of -non-gazetted employee (s), he may, in consultation with his F. A. & C. A. O. direct that such a payment may be made on the written authority of the gazetted officer (s), nominated for the purpose, subject to subsequent regularization by the competent authority in term of the above rule. The Gazetted officer on whose authority such provisional payment is made, should make an immediate report to the competent authority for sanction. In the case of monthly recurring payments, such provisional payments should be restricted to payments for a month.

(ii) Provisional payment should not be resorted to in cases in which recoveries may have to be effected and it is foreseen that there may be obvious difficulty in effecting recoveries later due to complication arising from the provisions of the Payment of Wages Act, etc.

When Audit object to upgrading of a post, the pay of the staff concerned should be frozen and no further increments in that scale should be allowed to them until the Audit objection has been finally disposed of. If any of the pasts which have bean allotted the higher grade and which have been objected to by Audit fall vacant subsequently, they should be downgraded in accordance with the Audit views, and future promotions ordered only in the lower grade until the matter is settled.

1104.  When a claim has been disallowed on the ground that it is not covered by an existing rule or order and the drawing officer or the party   concerned is unable to accept the Accounts  Officer's interpretation, it shall be op&n to the drawing officer or the party concerned to   represent the case to a higher authority,  end the amount disallowed will not be passed for payment unless the Accounts Officer's interpretation of the rule  or order is set aside by the authority competent to do so.

1105.  Ordinarily all personal claims will be checked finally within one year of the date of payment,  and if within this period an amount is discovered to have been paid erroneously, through an oversight in the accounts office and not due to wrong interpretation of a rule or order, it will ordinarily be recovered:   When the amount so detected can, without hardship to the party concerned, be recovered from a current bill the recovery will be made by the Accounts Officer from such bill. If, however, the amount discovered to have been erroneously paid cannot be met from the amount payable in the  current  bill or is so large as compared with the  person's pay that its recovery is, in the opinion of the Financial Advisor and Chief Accounts Officer, likely to cause a hardship to the party concerned, the amount will be held under objection and the drawing officer requested to take steps to recover the amount from the next bill or to obtain the sanction of the Head of Department, Additional/ Deputy Heads of Departments, Divisional   Superintendents, Deputy   Chief   Mechanical   Engineers or Works Managers in indep3ndent charge of Workshops, as the case may be, the recovery being made in a suitable number of installments.

1106. When erroneous payments have been passed for considerable time owing to a wrong interpretation of a financial rule or order, the new interpretation will be given effect from the date which the competent authority may decide when giving the correct interpretation. If no date is specifically fixed, the correct interpretation will be given effect from the date of issue of the competent authority's orders stating the correct interpretation.

1107. If any payments have to be disallowed more than one year after the date on which they were made, the amount of overpayment will be held under objection and reported to the head of the department for orders whether the recovery should be enforced or waived. All possible action should be taken in order to recover quickly any overpayments made and no recoverable overpayment should be ordinarily waived but where these are waived, there should be fullest justification for such waiver.

1108.  Every railway officer should attend  promptly to any objection communicated to him by the Account-Officer and all objections   relating to personal claims raised by the Accounts Officers or by the Audit Department, whether accepted or not, should immediately be communicated to the parties concerned,  so that the question of write-off of the amounts in the ground that they are more than a year old may not arise, in case it is eventually decided that the objections are correct and the amounts disallowed are to be recovered.

1109.  The Railway Board have  full powers to sanction the  write-off of amounts  overdrawn   by  Railway servants or otherwise due from them.   The General  Managers  may exercise the power of the Railway Board under this paragraph in respect of non-gazetted staff.    In the case of Gazetted officers, the  General Managers may waive recovery of amounts overdrawn by them or otherwise due from them, if the erroneous  payment or the amount due is discovered by Accounts or Audit more than one year after the date on which it was   made or on which it was due.   The General Manager may redelegate his powers under this paragraph to any authority subordinate to him, subject to such conditions as he may deem fit to prescribe.

Note.—In cases where an amount due from a person has to be written off on the ground that he/she is no longer in railway service and no recovery is, therefore, possible the orders sanctioning write-off should invariably contain a clause that any sums which are subsequently found due to the person concerned will be adjusted against the amount written.

1110.  The power  to remit a  disallowance, vide   paragraph 1109, is  exerciseable  only if the amount disallowed, having been finally passed by the Accounts Officer had been drawn by the railway servant concerned under the reasonable belief that he was entitled to it.

1111.  The  circumstances  in which the Accounts  Officers may waive  objections on their own  authority have been described in the Indian Railway Code for the Accounts Department.

Objections relating to Other Claims:

1112.  An item of expenditure may be held under objection for one more of the allowing reasons, viz. :—

(i) Want of sanctioned estimate ; 

(ii) Excess over sanctioned estimate ; 

(iii) Want of sanctioned appropriation ; 

(iv) Excess over sanctioned appropriation ; and 

(v) Miscellaneous reasons, e. g., absence of vouchers, breach of a financial rule,  incorrect allocation, etc.

1113.  It is the duty of the Accounts Officer  to bring to the notice of the executive  authority concerned without any avoidable delay, all items of irregular expenditure  held under objection by him and it shall be the function of the executive authority to take the earliest possible steps for the regularization of the expenditure by according of obtaining the necessary sanction, or by ordering recovery of the amount irregularly disbursed or by furnishing the further information required by the Accounts Officer.

1114.  If the executive authority concerned is unable to accept the objection raised by the Accounts Officer, it should at once refer the matter to the next higher  authority for his orders and the  objection shall not be considered as having been cleared   until it has been either withdrawn  by the Accounts Officer or over-ruled by the competent authority.

 

1115.  When a Financial Adviser and Chief Accounts Officer considers that the action taken by the administration in a particular case is inadequate, he will ask the General- Manager to report the matter to the Railway Board for orders, furnishing him at the same time, for transmission to the Railway Board,   a statement of the reasons for which he considers such action imperative.   The orders of the Railway Board on such a reference, when received by the General Manager, shall be furnished by him to the Financial Adviser and Chief Accounts Officer 

(vide paragraph 108-A I)

Multiple choice questions:

What action should the Accounts Officer take if a claim is not susceptible to internal check?

A. Pass it for the correct amount
B. Return it to the officer submitting it for amendment or explanation
C. Disallow it immediately
D. Forward it to the Railway Board

Answer: B. Return it to the officer submitting it for amendment or explanation

2. If a claim is susceptible to internal check but is incorrect otherwise, what should the Accounts Officer do?

A. Disallow the entire claim
B. Return the claim for correction
C. Pass it for the correct amount and disallow the incorrect part
D. Approve the claim provisionally

Answer: C. Pass it for the correct amount and disallow the incorrect part

3. Under what condition can provisional payments be made without prior request for staff governed by the Payment of Wages Act?

A. When the General Manager directs it
B. When there is an ex-post facto request from the competent authority
C. When the Accounts Officer approves
D. When the claim is below a certain amount

Answer: B. When there is an ex-post facto request from the competent authority

4. Who has the authority to direct provisional payments in emergent circumstances for non-gazetted employees?

A. Financial Adviser and Chief Accounts Officer
B. General Manager
C. Chief Commercial Superintendents
D. Railway Board

Answer: B. General Manager

5. What should be done when an erroneous payment is discovered within one year of the date of payment?

A. Write off the amount
B. Recover it from the current bill if possible
C. Forward the case to the Railway Board
D. Issue a warning to the drawing officer

Answer: B. Recover it from the current bill if possible

6. Who is responsible for recovering amounts erroneously paid if they cannot be met from the current bill and are too large to be recovered without causing hardship?

A. General Manager
B. Accounts Officer
C. Financial Adviser and Chief Accounts Officer
D. Head of Department

Answer: D. Head of Department

7. What should happen when a claim is disallowed because it is not covered by an existing rule or order, and the drawing officer disagrees with the Accounts Officer's interpretation?

A. The claim is automatically approved
B. The drawing officer or the party concerned can represent the case to a higher authority
C. The claim is forwarded to the Railway Board
D. The Accounts Officer's decision is final

Answer: B. The drawing officer or the party concerned can represent the case to a higher authority

8. What should be done with payments disallowed more than one year after they were made?

A. They should be recovered immediately
B. They should be reported to the head of the department for orders on recovery or waiver
C. They should be written off
D. They should be ignored

Answer: B. They should be reported to the head of the department for orders on recovery or waiver

9. Who has the full powers to sanction the write-off of amounts overdrawn by Railway servants?

A. Financial Adviser and Chief Accounts Officer
B. General Manager
C. Railway Board
D. Chief Commercial Superintendents

Answer: C. Railway Board

10. Who may exercise the power to waive the recovery of overdrawn amounts for non-gazetted staff?

A. General Manager
B. Accounts Officer
C. Financial Adviser and Chief Accounts Officer
D. Railway Board

Answer: A. General Manager

11. What is the duty of the executive authority when an item of irregular expenditure is held under objection by the Accounts Officer?

A. Ignore the objection
B. Refer the matter to the Railway Board
C. Take steps for regularization or recovery
D. Approve the expenditure provisionally

Answer: C. Take steps for regularization or recovery

12. What should be done if the executive authority is unable to accept the objection raised by the Accounts Officer?

A. Ignore the objection
B. Forward the matter to the next higher authority
C. Pass the claim provisionally
D. Write off the objection

Answer: B. Forward the matter to the next higher authority

 

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