Delhi govt rejigs finance dept weeks ahead of state budget

NEW DELHI: The Delhi government has restructured its finance department to improve coordination and prevent overlap of work, senior government officials said on Sunday.

The government has now compartmentalised the department into six divisions within it - administration, human resource, state resources, budget, expenditure, and policy, and appointed in-charges for each.

The reorganisation comes while the finance department has started the process of preparing Delhi’s 2021-22 budget, which is expected to be tabled by the end of February.

March, before the next fiscal begins, will mark a year since the Covid-19 pandemic first hit the Capital, pushing its revenue down nearly 30% even after the lockdown, according to government data.

Prior to the reorganising order issued by state finance secretary Sandeep Kumar dated January 11, 2021, Delhi government’s finance department broadly had only four — accounts, budget, expenditure and administration.

Following this reorganisation, a second order was issued on January 12 wherein the government defined which officer would be in-charge of each division. The second order stated that while each of the six branches will have a “division in-charge”, each will also have a “controlling officer” — the two special secretaries of the finance department — to oversee all work and fix accountability.

“In any government, officers keep getting transferred. There have been major confusions and work overlap, because officers never had clearly defined roles or scope within the finance department. Many times, a file would keep shifting from one table to another even within the same department. So, with these two orders now, the job roles of each officer and their workflow has been defined clearly,” said a senior finance officer on condition of anonymity.

A senior official in Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s office said such “reorganisations” are being considered for other departments of the Delhi government as well.

“A similar restructure is being worked on in the government’s grievance redressal cell, and a similar plan is being explored in the general administration department as well,” the officer said.

As the process to draw up the year’s budget begins, the finance department has asked all departments to submit revised estimates and outline additional funds they need, on the basis of the projects being worked on.

Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who is also Delhi’s finance minister, is likely to convene his first Delhi budgetrelated meeting this week.

Senior officials said the fund allocated for Covid-19 which in last year’s budget was just Rs 50 crore, is going to be increased this time.

Another big ticket scheme that will be repackaged and announced in the budget will be health cards for all Delhi residents.

Health sector is likely to get one of the highest share of funds, which some senior officials said could be even more than the education sector this time.

As for the Union budget, which will be presented on Monday, the Delhi government has demanded that the national capital be treated at par with the Union territory (UT) of Jammu & Kashmir regarding its share of central taxes and central assistance to UTS, and the Disaster Response Fund. It has also asked the Central government for additional funds to ease the financial crunch being faced by the three municipal corporations.

There have been major confusion and work overlap, because officers never had clearly defined roles within the finance dept.