Innovation with IT

Simplifying financial workflow

There are 20 district-level and 83 sub-district level treasuries in Haryana. Each treasury is associated with multiple lead bank branches which coordinate all treasury-related work. The workflow-based Online Treasuries Information System (OTIS), which ensures smooth data flow between treasuries and banks, and treasuries and departments, was developed by NIC-Haryana State Centre as a unique e-governance project in the country. The project is being implemented smoothly at all state treasuries since last four years.

The treasuries are required to maintain updated records of every financial transaction and submit daily reports to the Attorney General’s Office as well as the finance department. Fund management was done in the traditional manual manner leading to inefficiencies in the process. The involvement of numerous banks and the lack of a computerised workflow made the data collection process long, tedious and cumbersome. The time lag between when the funds came into a bank, and when the state treasury actually found out about the transaction was very large. The treasury was totally dependent on the internal processes of the banks—which were often marred by inefficiencies.

Process
OTIS is an integrated workflow system for which the key and other processes and functions were identified and flow diagrams were prepared. It used Microsoft technologies at frontend and backend. Role based operation of OTIS is done by Treasuries staff. The District Treasury Office has been empowered to control the budget as per allocations among District Development Officers (DDOs). At the finance department, all PCs are connected over a LAN.
Each branch and its staff members have been delegated powers to directly deal with their budget heads. Email based communication has facilitated better knowledge sharing. The DDOs related information is published on a web portal. This is an easily replicable application which can be deployed in any state with local customisations.

Impact
It has increased transparency in treasury operations and facilitated faster and more transparent payment processes, saving time and reducing red-tapism. The solution is used as a reform process to build an ‘information society’ where citizens are empowered by access to information, leading to timely availability of receipt, payment information and reports and also performs online verification of photos and signatures of pensioners, DDOs and messengers.