Minutes of the Meeting held on 11th November, 2016

Minutes of the Meeting held on 11th November, 2016

No.CPAO/CO―ORD/(107)/2016-17/496

MINISTRY OF FINANCE, DEPARTMENT OF EXPENDITURE

CENTRAL PENSION ACCOUNTING OFFICE

TRIK00T -II, BHIKAJI CAMA PLACE, NEW DELHI-110066
Dated: 24.11.2016

Minutes of the Meeting

Please find enclosed herewith a copy of minutes of the Meeting held on 11th November, 2016 

at ll.00 AM at O/o CGA under the chairmanship of controller General of Accounts to review the

 various pension ― related issues requiring close monitoring by Pr.CCAs/CCAs/CAs for further 

necessary action.

(Vijay Singh)

Sr. Accounts Officer

Minutes of the meeting held on 11.11.2016 under the chairmanship of Controller General

 of Accounts at Mahalekha Niyantrak Bhawan, INA, New Delhi.

A Meeting was held on 11.11.2016 at 11.00 AM under the Chairmanship of Controller General 

of Accounts in the Conference Hall ‘Swasti’ Mahalekha Niyantrak Bhawan, Office of CGA, Block-E,

General Pool Office Complex, INA Colony, New Delhi to discuss pension related issues.

At the outset Chief Controller (Pension) welcomed all the participants. Controller General of 

Accounts in his opening remarks highlighted the need for quick processing of pension cases

 to avoid delays and prompt disposal of Pensioners’ grievances and advised all concerned 

CCAs/CAs that issues regarding pending grievances and delays in receipt of pension & 

revision cases from HOOs/DDOs should be raised in the Senior Officers’ Meetings 

chaired by respective Secretaries. He stressed that all Pr. CCAs/CCAs/CAs must use their

 dashboards provided by CPAO to monitor the disposal of grievances and uploading of lists

 of retiring employees and submission of pension cases.

List of participants is at Annexure-I.

Following agenda items were discussed and decisions taken:-

1. Agenda Item No. 1-A: Pending cases of revision under OM dated 6th April, 2016: 

Delinking of revised pension from qualifying service of 33 years:

It was observed that total 88,550 cases were due for revision. Out of that 61,778 cases

 were already revised. However, still 26772 cases (30%) were pending for revision. 

Out of these cases, 2551 2 cases (95%) were pending with 9 ministries/ departments 

i.e. Home Affairs (23,307), Atomic Energy, Prasar Bharti, CBEC, I&B, Agriculture, HIED, 

Civil Aviation and Supply. Vide various OMs issued by CPAO, concerned CCAs/CAs 

were requested to revise pending cases urgently. CGA directed to finalize all the pending 

cases within one month. PAO wise pendencies were reviewed specifically for MHA & 

Atomic Energy and they were advised to regularly review the status with their high pendency PAOs.

Action: All Concerned CCAs/ CAs

2. Agenda Item No. 1-B: Status of revision of pending Pre-2006 pension cases

It was observed that total 4617 cases of Pre-2006 (1,199 of Pre-2006 & 3,418 of Pre-90)

 were pending for revision in civil Ministries/Departments. Highest pendencies pertained to 

Home Affairs (963), Atomic Energy (442), CBEC, HRD, and Prasar Bharti. It was informed

 by the CCAs/CAs that these cases are pending due to non-availability of required information 

either with PAOs or with HOOs & Banks in spite of all out efforts made. Following points 

decisions were taken:

(i) CPAO to prepare fresh list of live pending cases on the basis of e-scrolls received

 which may reduce the number of pending cases. This list would be 

provided to the concerned Ministries/Departments to again review the pendency and 

check the availability of records. If records are not available even after this exercise,

 the certificate of non availability of records would be furnished by concerned CCAs/CAs

 to CPAO to enable it to take further necessary action. If any pensioner represents for

 revision of his/her pension in future the same would be revised on the basis of 

records provided by him/her subject to verification of the record.

(ii) The above list would also be provided to concerned pension disbursing banks to 

check the genuineness of these pensioners on the basis of KYC records available with

 them and get the relevant records required for revision for such pensioners. The banks

 will also be asked to furnish the copies of life certificates received from these pensioners

 to CPAO by 15th Feb, 2017.

Action: All Concerned CCAs/CAs, CPAO and Banks

3. Agenda Item Number-2: Delay in receipt of fresh PPOs

It was observed that only 29 percent of fresh PPOs were received in CPAO from 

PAOs before the date of retirement of government servants. All the CCAs/CAs present

 in the meeting informed that delay in finalizing fresh pension cases is because of late

 submission of pension papers by the HOOs to concerned PAOs. However, status of 

Atomic Energy was quite satisfactory where 85% fresh PPOs were received before 

the date of retirement. The Joint CA, Atomic Energy informed that they are regularly 

reviewing the status of receipt of fresh pension cases with the department and in case 

of any problem; they are holding the meetings with senior officers so that timely receipt of 

cases in PAOs may be ensured. CGA appreciated the efforts of Atomic Energy and advised

 other CCAs/CAs also to take up the matter regularly with concerned 

Administrative Authorities i.e. HODs/DOOs/DDOs for receiving the pension cases in 

PAOs as per prescribed time schedule and use the dashboards provided under WRPS

 to monitor the delays.

Action: All Concerned CCAs/ CAs

4. Agenda Item Number-3: Seeding of Aadhaar

Significant progress was observed in respect of Aadhaar Seeding in fresh PPOs by 

the Ministries/Departments as overall seeding percentage had reached 61%. 

Ministries/Departments where seeding percent was low were Home Affairs, 

PPG and Supply. In some Ministries/Departments, like Health & Family Welfare, 

HRD, Prasar Bharti and UD seeding was more than 90%, CCA, MHA was requested to

 ensure increasing the number of Aadhaar seeding in fresh PPOs as the low percentage

 of IVIHA had brought down overall percentage very significantly. Representative of

 PPG&P pointed out that low percentage of Aadhaar seeding in PPG&P was due to low 

Aadhaar seeding by Director of Accounts, Cabinet Secretariat (DACS) which uses PAO code

 of PPG&P but they are not in the administrative control of CA, PPG&P. On this issue, 

it was decided that while CPAO may take up the matter with DACS; PPG&P was also 

advised to coordinate with DACS to resolve this issue on regular basis. Most of the 

CCAs/CAs informed that PAOs are indicating Aadhaar numbers in fresh PPOs 

wherever the same is made available by the concerned HOOs and efforts are made to 

make it 100%.

Action: All Concerned CCAs/CAs

5. Agenda Item Number-4: Web Responsive Pensioners’ Service:

A. Grievances: Under WRPS, total 570 grievances were received, out of that 375 pertained

 to the concerned 15 ministries. Out of these 375 grievances, 70 grievances were replied 

back by PAOs to CPAO and 56 settled. 305 grievances were still pending with PAOs. 

CGA advised all concerned CCAs/CAs to review the status of pending grievances through 

WRPS on weekly basis and settle the grievances in time bound manner. CC (P) also

 requested CCAs/CAs to regularly review the pending grievances available under their

 dashboards under WRPS and ensure not to allow any pendency beyond 30 days. 

All the CCAs/CAs assured to regularly review the pending grievances and take necessary 

action to bring down the number of pending grievances.

Action: All Concerned CCA5/ CAs

B. Quarterly List of retiring Employees: Lists of only 1734 retiring employees were uploaded 

so far by the PAOs of concerned Ministries/Departments. Since annually about 

35 thousand of fresh pension cases are received in CPAO, this small number of uploading 

of lists showed that still either many PAOs are not uploading complete lists of retiring 

employees or not uploading at all.

To ensure the timely submission of list of retirees by the HOOs to the concerned PAOs

 the CCAs/CAs present in the meeting were advised to take up the matter with their HODs 

on regular basis to get the complete list of retiring employees wherever the same is 

not being provided by the HOOs. CGA advised CCAs/CAs to pay special attention to 

those PAOs where details of not even single employee has been uploaded so far.

Action: All Concerned CCAs/ CAs

6. Agenda Item Number-5: Discrepancies in the bookie of Expenditure under 

Pension grant:

It was observed that there were many discrepancies in the booking of expenditure under

 pension grant No.35 in the year-2016-17 (up to 2nd quarter) by many Ministries/Departments

 i.e. expenditure in excess of budget, expenditure without budget, misclassification between

 charged and voted expenditure, expenditure booked in minus etc. 

An OM dated 11.11.2016 with details of discrepancies had already been issued to

 CCAs/CAs. All concerned CCAs/CAs were advised to regularly review the booking of 

expenditure under various heads of pension grant in their Ministries/Departments with the

 help of reports available under e-lekha/PFMS and ensure to avoid any discrepancies in 

booking under pension grant.

Action: All Concerned CCAs/ CM

7. During the meeting, CCA, Home Affairs and CA, Agriculture requested CC (P)

 to organize workshop for their pension processing PAOs in CPAO on WRPS and various

 pens’ ion related issues. It was agreed that workshop for PAOs of Ministry of Agriculture 

would be organized on 18th November, 2016 and for MHA on 1st December, 2016 at CPAO.

 Other Ministries were also requested to work out schedule of workshop for their PAOs in

 consultation with CPAO.

Action: All Concerned CCAs/CA, CPAO, MHA, Agriculture

The meeting ended with vote of thanks to the chair.

Signed copy