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State of Bihar - Section

Section 69 in Management and Working of the Forests

69. [Hints for checking monthly accounts in Divisional Offices.] [See also Appendix XIX.]

- The principal duty of the Accounts Branch of Divisional Forest Office is the incorporation of Range Accounts into one consolidated account which is submitted to the Accountant General. The Divisional Officer is required to see that such subsidiary accounts are properly incorporated. Although it is desirable in order to avoid objections to see that the various forms submitted agree with each of the, this point is not of great importance. The Divisional Officer must remember, however that as the Accountant-General's Office does not see the Range Accounts, the responsibility for their proper incorporation and check rests entirely with him.
(2)The Divisional Cash Book as submitted to the Accountant General as far as it concerns Range Accounts should be shown into four heads-
(a)Advances on account of expenditure by disbursers.
(b)Recoveries of these advances by expenditure on work done by Range Officers, etc.
(c)Revenue collected by Range Officers.
(d)Revenue remitted by Range Officers.
(3)The Divisional Office Accountant should be required to balance each Range Account when received by endorsing the following simple abstract giving lump sum totals on each Range Cash Book:-
Dr. Cr.
Opening balance on 1st Expenditure charged off on work done.
Revenue (if any) receive. Revenue (if any) remitted.
Advances received from Divisional Office Recoveries of excesspayments if any Closing balance on 31st
If these are totalled for all Ranges and the Divisional headquarters accounts added the result should agree with Form No. 6, Forest Account Code, as submitted to Accountant-General, and the Accountant should invariably exhibit this check to the Divisional Officer.
(4)The Range Accounts should also be compared with the abstracts of entries in the Contractor's and Disburser's Ledger. (The Office Accountant may be entrusted to see that the abstract submitted to the Accountant General through the Conservator is a true copy of the entries in the Ledger itself, which is rather too bulky to send into camp.) If the range Accounts disagree with the entries in the Ledger Abstract, the Accountant must be called upon to explain, and the Range Officer at once addressed to make his accounts agree (should any sum, for instance, be disallowed).
(5)Check of revenue mainly entail the checking of payments due by lessees or purchasers who are paying for forest produce by instalments, and Divisional Officers should either keep up themselves or require their Accountant to send them every month the form in which such instalments are originally written up and subsequent payments entered as they are shown from time to time. From this, the Divisional Forest Officer will become aware of instalments which become overdue and can take action for their recovery. Other items include the realisation of compensation for forest offences. This is usually dealt with by the Accountant, who should be responsible that outstandings are realised without undue delay. These items do not ordinarily come to the notice of the Accountant General.
(6)Copies of the Range Accounts submitted to the Head office should occasionally be compared with the originals in Range Offices when opportunity occurs. Cases have been known in which such copies have been altered by clerks at headquarter without intimation having been given to the Ranger concerned. Any discrepancy should of course be severely dealt with as it gives a loop hole for fraud. All documents should be carefully scrutinized for erasures.
(7)As regards check of Subsidiary Forms required by the certificate at the foot of the Cash Book, although any discrepancy would soon be brought to notice in the Accountant General's audit it is just as well to see that the following items in the Divisional Cash Book agree with the registers concerned, namely:-
(a)"To cheques drawn":-
Figures should agree with those in column 4 of the Register of Cheques Form No. 4, Forest Account Code (Schedule Form No. 2).
(b)"By amount of advances made, etc."-
Figures should agree with totals of Column 10 of Ledger Abstract. Form No.13, Forest Account Code (Schedule Form No. 4).
(c)"To recoveries from disbursers, etc."-
Figures should agree with totals of column 6 of Ledger Abstract (Form No. 8F. A. Code).
(d)"By expenditure charged, etc."-
Figures should agree with totals Form No. 14, Forest Account Code-expenditure. (116-Schedule XVIII)-
(e)"To revenue received":-
Figures should agree with totals of Form No. 14, Forest Account Code-Revenue (116-Schedule XVIII)-
(f)"By revenue paid into Treasuries":-
Figures should agree with totals of Schedule of Remittances (Form No. 6 of F.A. Code).Note. - It frequently happens, however, that owing to dates of payment in Range Accounts not agreeing with those in Treasuries, a memorandum of adjustments has to be drawn up. This should be checked with accounts of previous month.The following forms should also be compared for purposes of agreement. Total of Form No. 14, (Forest Account Code) (Form No. 116, Schedule XVIII) Revenue, should equal total of figures in Manual From No. 4 (Revenue received from purchasers) plus total of Manual Form No. 3, (No. 21), (Depot sales account) plus total of receipts under V (Miscellaneous).It is hardly necessary to add that a Divisional Forest Officer should keep control of expenditure and see, as far as possible, that work charged for has been duly executed which can only, however, be done by personal inspection while on tour.Neglect of the following points when preparing Form No. 14 (116 Schedule XVIII) Expenditure (Forest Account Code) often leads to unnecessary correspondence:-
(a)Sufficient details should be given in column 2 to enable the charges to be at once understood and checked.
(b)The authority for charges lying outside the power of the sanction of the officers submitting the accounts should invariably be quoted in the "Remarks" column.
(c)Whenever expenditure on any work is spread over two or more months, the total previous expenditure on such work should be noted in the "Remarks" column before beginning to enter the items expended during the month.
(d)Whenever in the case of departmental operations the expenditure on a particular lot of produce is charged in a month subsequent to that in which this particular produce was brought on to Form No. 2 of this Manual a reference to this latter month should be made in the "Remarks" column, in no case should charges be made for produce which has not yet been brought on to Form No. 2 of this Manual.
(e)Final adjustment of expenditure on construction of buildings, roads, etc. should not be made except on receipt of a satisfactory completion report signed by the Range Officer after personal inspection of the work.
(f)If any produce is entered in Form No. 2 of this Manual as received during the month, the expenditure on account of which cannot for some valid reason be charged off in the same month, such reason will be briefly recorded in the "Remarks" column against the entry in question, the month in which it will appear being at the same time stated.
The comparison between the Range Accounts and the Divisional Accounts in which they are incorporated should, if possible, be made before the submission of latter to the Accountant General. The latter however, must not be unduly delayed for this purpose and there is no reason why this comparison should not take place subsequently and errors, if any, rectified by adjustments in the following month. Want of time will not be held as an excuse for neglect on the part of the Divisional Forest Officer to properly scrutinise the accounts work in his office.