(iv) Grants-in-Aid'
8.15 Grants-in-aid are sanctioned either by the Government or by authorities subordinate to it (Heads of Departments, etc.). After the budget allotments have been communicated by the Finance Department, the payment is authorised at the treasury either through the Accountant-General or direct, as the case may be,-vide Subsidiary Treasury Rule4.4.
In order to ensure that the grants-in-aid are not disbursed to the local bodies before they are required by them for expenditure on the object for which they are granted, the instructions given below should be observed. These instructions do not, however, apply to grants of less than Rs. 5,000.00 or to grants which are given for a specific purpose which has been carried out at the time of the payment of the grant.
a) Grants-in-aid other than those relating to works to be executed through the agency of the Public Works Department :-
1. The sanctioning authority will issue the necessary letter of authority to the Accountant-General or the Treasury Officer, as the case may be, for the payment of the amount required for immediate disbursement.
2. The letter of authority will contain instructions that no drawal shall be allowed, except on a regular bill signed by the Chief Executive of a local body concerned and countersigned by a Government servant named in the letter of authority.
b) Grants-in-aid to local bodies for works to be executed through the agency of the Public Works Department other than Public Health Engineering Department;
1. The orders sanctioning the grant-in-aid to a local body and requiting the Public Works Department to execute the work on behalf of the local body as a contribution work shall he issued simultaneously and the local body shall be informed accordingly.
2. The sanctioning authority will issue the letter of authority to the Accountant- General or to the Treasury Officer, as the case may be, for the payment of the amount required for immediate disbursement.
3. The letter of authority will contain instructions that .no drawal shall be allowed except on a hill presented by the local body and made payable by transfer credit to "Public Works Deposits".
c) In the case of Public Health Engineering Department the following procedure shall be observed:-
i. A Current Account in the name of the particular Scheme will be maintained with the National Bank of Pakistan. Where there is no branch of the National Bank of Pakistan the Account will be maintained with a Nationalized Bank chosen in consultation with the Finance Department.
ii. All funds provided by the Provincial Government in the form of loans and grants as well as those contributed by the Committees concerned will be deposited into the said Bank Account.
iii. The Bank Account will be operated jointly by the Administrator of the Committee and the Executive Engineer or the Sub-Divisional Officer of the Public Health Engineering Division concerned.
iv. The expenditure out of the Bank Account will he incurred only in connection with the scheme in question and for no other purpose.
v. Loans and Grants will he released by the Provincial Government on quarterly basis. Releases for the fourth quarter will depend on the physical and financial progress of work and will be based on the revised estimates.
vi. The Public Health Engineering Division will not make any advance payment out of the head "Public Works Advance".
d)
1. Each Department sanctioning the grants-in-aid shall certify by 30th November each year that—
vii. the grant sanctioned in the previous year has been utilized for the object for which it was given;
viii. the grant was spent within the prescribed time limit or where no time limit was prescribed within a reasonable time; and
ix. any portion of the amount which was not ultimately required for expenditure on the specified object was duly surrendered to the Government.
2. If any Department fails to give the aforesaid certificate by the stipulated date, the Audit Office shall bring the case of default to the notice of the Government in the Finance Department by the 31st December each year.
NOTE.---Grants-in-aid to local bodies, private associations, etc., unconnected with Government are made for various purposes. Some of those grants are recurring and arc paid year after year and others are merely lump- sum grants to be paid for a definite number of years and then stopped. In the case of such grants-in-aid, the head of the department when the total grant for the entire head is communicated to him at the commencement of the year, should issue definite orders authorizing the Accountant-General to disburse each such grant-in-aid included in his estimates. This would give him an opportunity of reviewing the grants and of deciding whether they ought to be continued or not and thereby avoid the real danger of grants going on being paid automatically year after year even after their justification has ceased.
V. --RECORD OF CONTINGENT EXPENDITURE-CONTINGENT REGISTER
8.16 A register of contingent expenditure shall be kept in each office, and the initials of the head of the office or any other officer to whom this duty has been delegated by him {see rule 8.26 below), shall be entered against the date of payment of each item.
This register will .be in P.F.R. Form 13 (except in the case of the office of the Controller; Provincial Stationery Office in which this register shall be maintained in P.F.R. (Form 13-A) in which the Accountant-General will assign to the several columns headings suitable to the conditions of each department and office. If the appropriation for contingencies of an office be divided under two or three main sections only, still under each the most common sub-heads may be detailed, and a single column allotted for the more varied items; if the appropriation be parceled out under many detailed heads, the most common will have each its own column with appropriation noted at the top, while the rest with their appropriations will be thrown into the column of miscellaneous charges. Any Charge, falling, under any of the separate columns, but requiring explanation, should be described in the column headed "Description", though the amount of it is entered only in its special column; and the same "Description" column will serve also for note of the month or period to which any recurring charges (e.g., rent or pay of punkha pullers) entered in the other columns belong.
1. If more convenient, a separate register may be maintained for each class of contingent charges (see rule 8.2).
2. If during the absence of the head of the office or an officer to whom this duty has been delegated, the entries have been initialed by an official the register must be reviewed and the entries re-initialed by the head of the office or officer on return to headquarters.
3. When any sub-vouchers which should accompany a contingent bill are to follow, a note to this effect should invariably be made in the "Remarks" column of the Contingent register, in order that the necessity for furnishing these vouchers, as early as possible, may not be overlooked.
4. The contingent register maintained under this rule gives full information in respect of contingent charges. It is, therefore, not necessary to prepare and preserve office copies of contingent bills.
8.17 As the office cashier pays away any money, he will enter in the contingent register the date, name of payee, and number of sub-vouchers in the three columns to the left, and the amount in the Proper column; and in the case of any charge requiring explanation, he will also take against the description the initials of the Government servant incurring it.
NOTE.---Regarding the entries to be made in the final columns, see rule 8.12.
8.18 To enable the \ disbursing officer to watch the progress of the expenditure under each detailed head, as compared with the budget appropriation for it, a progressive total of all the columns must be made monthly, immediately after the monthly total, and will include all payments under each head, as also all work bills [see rule 8.22] from the commencement of the year upto the end of the last expired month.
The charges relating to two major heads are not to be shown in one register. But in the case of joint grant (vide Subsidiary Treasury Rule 4.44) such grant may be entered in one register only for the purposes of control.
NOTE.--See also Subsidiary Treasury Rule 4.45.
VI. -- PURCHASE OF SERVICE POSTAGE, STAMPS
8.19 The following procedure should be adopted by Government servants for obtaining service postage stamps and for the adjustment of their value :-
i. Government servants who draw money from the treasury on
contingent bills--A bill in Form S.T.R. 33 should be prepared by disbursing officers when they require service postage stamps. The bills will contain the acknowledgment of the drawing officer of the receipt of the stamps indented for and will in other respects be treated in the same way as a contingent bill for drawing cash from the treasury. The treasury officer should pass the bill for "payment by transfer", have the stamps issued, and enter the amount in the list of payments, crediting the value of the stamps to the head to which the cash realised is now credited. The Audit Office will exercise the same check over the transactions as it would exercise, if they were cash transactions, except that a voucher in support of the entry in the bill will not be required, .as cash is not paid into the treasury.
ii. Government servants who draw money by cheques from treasuries--
Cheques to be presented in payment of the value of service stamps should be drawn in favour of the officer (designation without name) who supplies the stamps, whether they are drawn by the officer who indents for the stamps or by a departmental indenting officer on the indenting officer's requisition. (See Subsidiary Treasury Rule 4.15 regarding the method of crossing such cheques).
NOTE 1.—Cheques drawn for obtaining stamps from treasuries are