Chandigarh, August 19 - The Haryana Government has directed all Administrative Secretaries not to sanction GPF advance to any officer or employee during the last six months of service before retirement. These instructions have been issued with an objective to check irregularities in the procedures related to General Provident Fund (GPF).
A letter issued in this regard by Chief Secretary Shri Anurag Rastogi, who also holds the charge of Additional Chief Secretary, Finance Department, said that the information regarding advance or withdrawal sanctioned in the 12 months before the date of retirement of the employee should be mandatorily recorded in the forms and should be certified by the Administrative Department.
Further, after sending the final payment case to the office of the Principal Accountant General, if any unusual circumstances are sanctioned in advance, it should be intimated immediately through official email or other formal means so that necessary adjustments in the payment can be made.
According to the letter, it has come to the notice of the Finance Department that some administrative departments and DDOs are sanctioning recoverable or non-recoverable advances even after sending the GPF final payment case to the office of the Principal Accountant General (Accounts and Entitlements).
Along with this, in many cases it has also been found that the mandatory details related to advance or withdrawal in the PF-09 and PF-10 forms related to GPF final payment, especially the details related to the period of 12 months before the date of retirement, are not being filled properly and are not being authenticated by the administrative department.
The Finance Department has clarified that such loopholes increase the possibility of payment irregularities and overpayment, which may cause financial loss to the State. The letter states that the “online submission” of GPF final payment cases is done only through the “Online Diary Management System (ODMS)”, while the work related to advances and withdrawals is done on the government’s “e-Billing Portal (T&A)/NIC”.
This problem is recurring due to lack of data integration between these two portals and non-compliance of instructions given by some DDOs.
The State Government, taking the matter seriously, has directed all Treasury Officers and DDOs to ensure strict compliance of the Haryana Civil Services (GPF) Rules, 2016.