Meeting held with Shri Surjit Singh Rakhra, Hon'ble Cabinet Minister ...

Meeting held with Shri Surjit Singh Rakhra, Hon’ble Cabinet Minister,
Rural Development and Panchayat, Punjab on 1 st June 2012 at Mohali
Seen in the picture (L to R -Sitting): Shri Balwinder Singh, Director-cum-Special
Secretary, Rural Development & Panchayat, Punjab, CA. Amarjit Chopra, Chairman,
CPF&GA, Shri Surjit Singh Rakhra, Hon’ble Cabinet Minister, Rural Development and
Panchayat, Punjab, Shri Mandeep Singh Sandhu, IAS, Principal Secretary
Also seen are CA. Shalini Jindal, Secretary, CPF&GA, Shri Sunil K Bhasin, Co-opted
Member, CPF&GA, CA. Ajay Kumar Alipuria, Co-opted Member, CPF&GA, CA. D. K.
Singla, Past Co-opted Member, CPF&GA, Dr. Nikhil Saket, Sr. Asst. Secretary, CPF&GA
CA. Amarjit Chopra, Chairman, Committee on Public Finance & Government Accounting
(CPF&GA) had a meeting with Shri Surjit Singh Rakhra, Hon’ble Cabinet Minister, Rural
Development and Panchayat, Punjab on 1 st June 2012 at his office at Mohali to discuss
the areas where Committee can assist the department.
The following members were also present during the meeting:
1.) Shri Mandeep Singh Sandhu, IAS, Principal Secretary
2.) Shri Balwinder Singh, Director-cum-Special Secretary, Rural Development
& Panchayat, Punjab
3.) CA. Ajay Kumar Alipuria, Co-opted Member, CPF&GA
4.) CA. Sunil K Bhasin, Co-opted Member, CPF&GA
5.) CA. D. K. Singla, Past Co-opted Member, CPF&GA
6.) CA. Shalini Jindal, Secretary, CPF&GA
7.) Dr. Nikhil Saket, Sr. Asst. Secretary, CPF&GA
Hon’ble Cabinet Minister said that to provide a transparent and corruption free
administration at the village level, the Punjab Government will soon initiate the auditing

of the panchayat accounts. Sarpanches, panches and panchayat secretaries will be
trained by Chartered Accountants in keeping accounts. He further added that Punjab
Government has already established liaison with the Committee on Public Finance &
Government Accounting of ICAI for this purpose and Punjab would be the first state to
accept Centre’s recommendation of providing a transparent administration at the village
level.
Rural Development and Panchayat Department of Punjab seeked the
assistance of Committee on Public Finance & Government Accounting, ICAI in
the following areas:
1.) To conduct training of the officials at the level of Panchayats, Block &
District: The Minister opined that the training would enable the officials of Panchayats
to handle the funds received from the State & Centre in a better way and thereby keep
a check on utilization of the same.
2.) To develop system to streamline the existing accounting system: In this
regard, assistance of Committee is required for the proper integration of existing
accounting system into the newly developed accounting software for keeping track of
the records of panchayat accounts.
3.) To undertake study on the topics of relevance given by the department:
Here assistance of Committee is required for studying the formats of accounts in which
books of accounts are required to be maintained for bringing more transparency and
ensuring better administration at each level of district, block and panchayats.
4.) To conduct audit of sources and application of funds: Once proper books of
accounts are being maintained at each level, Committee would assist the Punjab
Government in auditing of the accounts.
5.) To suggest measures for Resource mobilization and utilization system in
place: In order to increase the revenue and better utilization of grants received by the
rural development department and to keep a check on any leakages of the revenue,
suggestions shall be submitted by the Committee to generate more funds.
6.) To develop the double entry accounting system for the department: In
order to provide more transparency and better administration of panchayat funds,
assistance in developing double entry accounting system is also proposed.
CA. Amarjit Chopra, Chairman, CPF&GA said that this initiative of the Committee to
organise Training Programme for the officials of Rural Development and Panchayat
Department, Punjab will be a step forward in helping the State Government. Such
programmes will be aimed at providing wider exposure to the participants on various
accounting, auditing, good governance and taxation issues. The various reform
measures are deeply ingrained with the objective of accelerating agricultural and rural
infrastructure. In this respect, close co-ordination of the Government machinery with
finance professionals like CA’s is a must.