All India Postal Accounts Employees Association

Central Headquarters

(Affiliated to National Federation of Postal Employees)

13-B, New Mahavir Nagar, Type-IV, DDA Flat, New Delhi – 110018

e-mail: aipaea_pao@yahoo.co.in

(Camp at: B-17,F-3,Vignanapuri,Vidyanagar,Hyderabad-500044)

AIPAEA/CHQ/12 Dated 16-07-2012.

To,

The Chairman,

Organizational Restructuring Committee,

Department of Posts,

New Delhi.

Sub: - Organizational Restructuring Committee – Views – Regarding.

Ref: - Lr.No. 23-1/2012 – PE – II dated 10-07-2012.

Sir,

I thank you for giving an opportunity to this Association to air its views on the above subject. Absence of any proposal/road map from the Department inhibited this Association to put its views on all aspects. However, I submit the following views for the favour of consideration by the Committee.

The Postal Accounts has been formed under the Departmentalization Act, 1976 with its roots in the Article 150 of the Constitution of India. Ever since its formation it is discharging its functions -- at the apex level it is assisting the Secretary Department of Posts to render Accounts to the Government of India. At the Circle level besides compilation of Accounts & rendering consolidated accounts to the Directorate, it conducts internal audit of the accounting and administrative units of the Department and acts as Internal Financial Advisor.

Strengthen the Accounts and Audit: To discharge the role intended by the Ministry of Finance Postal Accounts needs to be strengthened. With the expanding span of the business activities of the Department of Posts, the role of the accounting and financial advice becomes important. To discharge these functions more efficiently the following vital issues need to be addressed.

1. Recruitment: It is the most neglected area. During the time of Screening Committee the vacancies of Postal Accounts have been moved away. The result is that the organization is gasping for fresh blood to meet the new challenges. Even after lifting the ban on recruitment also the Postal Accounts continues to reel under severe staff shortage. Hence, this issues needs to be addressed urgently.

2. Training: In the Postal Department, Postal Accounts is the only organization where training of Staff is not taking place. It is left to the employee concern to learn the work knowledge from the peers. To meet the future needs of the Department, trained pool of the employees is an essential requirement.

3. Retain the present Circle level formation: To ensure functional autonomy it is essential to strengthen the Postal Accounts in a centralized environment. With the large scale induction of the technology in the Department, the accounting and audit functions can be discharged more efficiently in the autonomous environment from the Circle. Fragmenting the Organisation in the name of decentralization will not augur well to the Department. It is also pertinent to note that decades back when the technology level is not so high and the decentralization was a popular notion, the experiment conducted in this regard by the Department proved to be a failure.

4. Member Finance is required in the Postal Services Board: Postal Department is handling multifarious functions involving thousands of lakhs of rupees. Except in the Department of Posts, in all Organised Accounts like Railways, Defence, Telecom the post of Member Finance is in vogue. Hence, creation of the post of Member Finance bringing all the streams of accounts cadres under the purview for effective control and monitoring of huge financial activities handled by this Department is important.

5. Access of the technology: The Postal Accounts should be able to access the soft ware of the field units for the information relating to the accounts. This will cut down the delay. While inducting the new technology in the Department the requirement of the Accounts and Audit should be taken care of.

It is submitted that the above views are not exhaustive. Submission of further views on the formation of silos and on other policy directions is possible only on knowing the proposals of the Department and such views will be presented to the Department along with the National Federation of Postal Employees of which this Association is a constituent organization.

Thanking you,

Yours faithfully,

(T.SATYANARAYANA)

General Secretary