TN pilot on digitising service records, pensions and govt bills in 5 five districts under IFHRMS to be completed by Nov; entire state to be covered by Jan 1, 2020

C Shivakumar @ CHENNAI:

Tamil Nadu government is planning to complete the pilot of Integrated Financial and Human Resources Management System (IFHRMS), a first of its kind in the country that ensures digitisation of the treasury system seamlessly integrating it with human resource and budget management, in seven locations including five districts by the end of November before rolling it out across the state by December 31 this year, according to Tenkasi S Jawahar, principal secretary and commissioner of treasuries and accounts.

Around 9.30 lakh government employees pay details, promotion, transfer, leave and other service details besides 7.20 lakh pensioners details and other bills will be digitised as a result the entire system will be handling transactions worth Rs 2 lakh crore, says Jawahar.

"We are trying to make it 100 per cent foolproof as a result we are facing technical issues like system getting slower and other issues. we are trying to resolve it. the system as a pilot will be be implemented in Salem, Theni, Karur, Ariyalur and Kanyakumari districts besides Pay and accounts office in Madurai and Secretariat by the end of November after which it will be rolled out across the state by the end of this year," said Jawahar.

Once IFHRMS is implemented, the 18,000 drawing and disbursing officers (DDOs) will be able to submit bills to the treasury online. This system will provide real time data on revenue and expenditure. It will also be linked to Income Tax department, Reserve bank of India and Comptroller and Auditor General of India, GST network as well as other banks. "usually, it takes 18 days to clear the salaries or bills but with the implementation of IFHRMS, it will take one day, says Jawahar.

It is learnt that mapping of data is very crucial and unsanctioned posts should not come into IFHRMS besides 100 per cent compliance is required for implementing it. "The post-mappping data has been validated," says Jawahar.

Meanwhile, additional systems has been provided to all subordinate offices of treasuries department andf officials are being trained in IFHRMS in each department. "The entire money from this project is funded by the state government. The project is worth rs 291 crore with five-year handholding by Wipro, which is playing the role of system integrator in the project. The other players include Accenture and Pricewaterhousecooper, the third party audit agency.  We have spent Rs 100 crore on hardware. We are dependent on Tamil Nadu State Wide Area Network (TNSWAN) but are keeping Aittel Rowers in our site as standby," said Jawahar.