Minister for Finance, Labour & Employment Dr Haseeb Drabu today reviewed the progress made on replacement of existing Treasury system to Pay and Accounts Office (PAO) system in a meeting convened, here today.Principal Secretary, Finance Navin Kumar Choudhary, Director General Accounts & Treasuries Altaf Hussain Mirza, Director Codes Mohammad Rafi Andrabi and other senior officers of the Finance Department were present at the meeting.While reviewing the progress, Finance Minister asked the concerned officers to expedite the process so that PAO system can be launched in the state by January 18. He said that the Finance department has a huge public interface and this new system would surely help in simplifying the whole process of government payments.During the meeting, a detailed presentation was made by concerned officer about the proposed organizational set up and functioning of this new system.
Speaking to the officers, the Minister asked them to ensure that everyone working with this new system should be assigned with a meaningful role for better delivery of services. He said that the operational staff should lay focus on streamlining the payment system and to ensure payments in a specified period.Dr Drabu said that there is a need to design the system in such a way that it meets the future requirements and should be functionally aligned rather than geographically demarcated. He said that he will personally review the progress twice a week so that the required changes in the draft model including administrative reforms would be made before finally switching to the PAO system.It was informed in the meeting that this system is being integrated with Budget Estimation, Allocation & Monitoring System (BEAMS) for better check of budgetary allocation and authorized expenditure.