With the computerization of online treasuries and other related activities using ICT, there has been a paradigm shift in e-Governance of Finance Department of Meghalaya. Most of services are now centralized and hosted at the dedicated servers, where citizen can access over the internet, hazzlefree. NIC Meghalaya started the first computerization of the Finance Department way back in 1993 with the computerization of the State Budget using Xenix OS and 20 nos. of dump terminals connected to a X386 Server. Since then there has been tremendous improvement in providing egov support to Finance Department with the computerization of online treasuries and other related activities as highlighted below and most of these services now are centralized and hosted in the dedicated servers where citizen can access them over the internet. The following are the ICT services rendered to Finance Department, by NIC Meghalaya. All these activities are possible with the activity support of the Principal Secretary of the Finance Department which took many initiatives and decision to support NIC in its endeavor. INTEGRATED FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Meghalaya Integrated Financial Management System (http://meg-ifms.nic.in) is an ICT based fiscal and financial management information system that provides financial information to the DDOs/ HODs in general and Finance department in particular to monitor the financial transactions incurred by them and to manage and report their financial activities. With the implementation of the Online Treasury Computerisation (TreasuryNET), the financial transactions (Receipt and Expenditure) from various Treasuries and Sub-treasuries in the state is integrated and published in this portal. TREASURYNET TreasuryNET is an n-tire architecture web based modular application which runs on Linux OS, with PHP on the client-end and PostgreSQL in the back end for on-line treasury activities. Data from treasuries are uploaded to the To strengthen the Financial Management in the State, implementation of various e-Gov initiatives cannot be over emphasized. It is in this context that the Finance Department, Government of Meghalaya has taken keen interest in promoting ICT solutions. Many applications have been implemented in this regard, viz. Treasury NET, Employee Database, Centralized Pension Payment System, Finance Budget, eGRAS, PFMS, Megdbt portal, etc., with the implementation of these applications, transparency and accountability has improved in the State. I would like to congratulate the NIC Meghalaya team for extending unstinting support to the Department. I wish them very best in their future endeavors and hope that they carry-on the work of uplifting the services of the Government and its people. Components of IFMS Central Server to provide a updated information to the DDOs, the Administrative Departments and Finance Department. The application is also integrated with the Cash Management Product (CMP) of SBI which enables Treasury Officers to upload the financial transaction directly to the Bank’s portal. It is also integrated with the Accountant General’s Office and other stake holders involved in the financial transaction of the state government. MEGHALAYA EMPLOYEE INFORMATION SYSTEM (MEGHEIS) NIC Meghalaya has taken up the project to computerize the Employee Database for the employees of the State Government of Meghalaya. The State Government took the initiatives and entrusted NIC Meghalaya to design and built a comprehensive Database for the employee across the state which includes personal information, salary details, information relating to transfer and posting, promotions, family details etc for all Government employees, semi-government employees, ad-dhoc staff etc. The core elements that comprised the Employee’s database are bio-data of the employee, appointment details, family details and most importantly, the salary details. The prerequisites for the database are the legacy data and pay data as per recorded in the Service Book/Roll which is authenticated by the DDO of the employee. Also the database has the information like new appointment/ transfer, changes in emoluments or entitlements or promotions, increments, suspension, leave etc. MeghEIS is a role-based system and it follows the Maker-Checker concept for data initialization and data verification. The system has the features that any Government employee can login into the application and checks for his/her latest payslip, GPF statements and other details. A mobile app is also being developed to enable the employees to view the data like payslip, GPF Statement etc. CENTRALIZED PENSION PAYMENT SYSTEM (CPPS) NIC has implemented the Centralized Pension Payment System (CPPS) which enables Treasuries and Sub Treasuries to digitize the pensioner profile, capture pensioner image, fingerprints, update appearance, upload fingerprint, generates the pension payment, print payment slip of pensioner and update passbook to/ from the Central server from a Nodal Treasury. With the implementation of CPPS, Treasuries/ Sub Treasuries are able to submit the statement to Nodal Treasury to process the pension of pensioner and disburse the pension. Using this system, the monthly pension is directly credited to the bank account of the Pensioners on the 1st working day of the month. MEGHALAYA NEW PENSION SCHEME (MEGHNPS) NIC Meghalaya has taken up the project to computerize the New Pension Scheme (NPS) for employees of the State Government of Meghalaya who join the service on or after 1st April 2010. As per the recommendation of the 13th Finance Commission, the State Government took the initiatives and entrusted NIC Meghalaya to design and build a comprehensive Database for the employee across the Megh-EIS TreasuryNet state which includes registration of NPS subscribers, contribution, information relating to subscriber’s contribution etc. NPS database is a record of the legacy data of a government employee using data storage technology (Database) to store or add new record (s) or modifying an existing one which can be retrieved easily and maintained effectively. The core elements required for building up of this database are bio-data of the employee, appointment details, family details and most importantly the salary details, contribution of the subscriber and reconciliation of contributions. The “New Pension Scheme” (MegNPS) application is seamlessly integrated with the existing “State Employee Database Project” (MeghEIS) for fetching employee’s information such as subscriber’s profile and contributions details. The information retrieved is validated by the operator and stored into the NPS Database after the generation of a PPAN number. GOVERNMENT RECEIPT ACCOUNTING SYSTEM (GRAS) (https://megepayment.gov.in/) NIC Meghalaya in collaboration with Finance Department (FD), Government of Meghalaya, is implementing an online system to collect the payments (i.e. Revenue Receipt) from the citizens and taxpayers, electronically over the payment gateway of SBI. The e-Payment is an additional mode of payment of Taxes, fees, penalties etc to the government, in addition to the conventional methods offered by the Government. Three modes of payments are enable in the system: • Internet Banking • Payment by Debit/ Credit Card • Payment across the Bank Counter (For those citizen who does not have a bank account with internet banking facility) All major nationalized banks and private banks are already integrated with GRAS. Citizens who are frequent tax payers can register themselves in the system and can get a unique User-ID/ Password. Others can make payment to the Government e.g. job aspirants, students etc using the option “Payment without Registration”. The system operates on a 24x7 mode and citizen can make the payment any time of the day. Using the online filling of single challan form, one has to enter minimum parameters as most of the data are pre-populated in the form of the drop-down list. Once the payment is done, instant online receipt and instant online banks transaction number will be made available to the citizen. One can pay personal taxes as well as other taxes/ fees, fines, penalties etc or any other payment on behalf of the firm, company and others. DIVISIONNET NIC Meghalaya has taken up the computerization of the Accounting sections of the Divisions of different Works Departments such as PWD, PHE, Forest etc. The online application has been developed and has been tested and implemented in number of Divisional Offices in the state. The system is a role based system where data is captured and pushed from level to another level electronically. The system has been designed as per the PWD Accounting Manual for the Divisional Offices under PWD, PHE, Water Resources, Estate Office etc. whereas for the Departments such as Forest & Environment Department, Soil & Water Conservation Department etc, the system is designed based on the Forest Accounting Manual. E-DDO BILLING SYSTEM The e-DDO Billing system is an extension of the TreasuryNET counter to the office of the DDOs. Different types of bills of the departments are keyed in by the department themselves along with the bank account details of the payees into which the amount is to be credited. A bill number will be generated and this will be treated as the Treasury bill number. The information on particulars of the payee is necessary for integrating TreasuryNET application with other applications like Public Financial Management System (PFMS) and SBI CMP so that the payments can be made directly to the account of the beneficiary. The application is built using PHP, javascript, jquery and postgreSQL as the RDBMS. INTEGRATED ONLINE BUDGET SYSTEM (IOBS) The Integrated Online Budget System (iOBS) is a web based system conceptualized and designed for capturing the electronic data and hosting the various activities involving Budget Distribution, Budget Preparation, Budget Allocation, Budget Re-appropriation, Errata and Submission of Excess Funds at the end of the financial year. The System enables the participation of various stake holders such as Administrative Departments and the HoDs in cases where the Administrative Departments have Field Departments. The system has been designed as a role based which follows a well defined work-flow where Administrative/ Field Departments will submit data online to the concerned branch of the Finance Department. The application consolidates all the financial data into a single database for easy analysis. Having a central database ensures that all changes made will get updated to the proper place Meghalaya ePayment portal Integrated Online Budget System and data can be easily backed up and audited for adjustment. Features • An n-tier Web Based Application designed and developed using Open Source platform/ technologies (Java/ PostGreSQL) • “Rule based” i.e. rules are defined and incorporated in the system for which validation checks, level of entries, workflows will be automated based upon pre-define rules • “Role based” i.e. data and information flows from one level (table) to another level across the network. Accessing and modifying the data will depend on the roles for which the user is assigned • User IDs and Passwords are provided to the various users at different levels • No unauthorized user will be allowed to access the system • Designed on a central database architecture model. Using this architecture, controlling and managing the system will be much easier. PMFS AND DBT PFMS is web-based online transaction system for fund management and e-payment to implementing agencies and beneficiaries through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT). The objective of PFMS is to establish an efficient fund flow system and expenditure network and provides various stakeholders with a reliable and meaningful management information system and an effective decision support system. The integration between TreasuryNET and PFMS has been completed and mapping of various government schemes had been done. A number of State Implementing Agencies have been registered in the online System. Various departments such as Education, Community & Rural Development, Social Welfare, Border Areas Development, Health, Soil & Water Conservation, etc have incorporated the DBT in transfer of funds under various schemes operated by them. Students have been registered for the appropriate scholarship schemes they are entitled to. Beneficiaries upto the village level are registered for availing various schemes which open up employment avenues, provide necessary day to day services and ensure social security. MEGHALAYA DBT PORTAL (MEGDBT) MegDBT is a web based Portal developed by DBT Mission and customized by NIC Meghalaya to help the state to manage DBT applicable schemes running in State UT and get aggregated dashboard and information. MegDBT Portal is an open source web based application, which is an aggregated Portal for DBT related scheme and services to monitor their performance, and mechanism to on-board these schemes / services for regular data reporting. The portal features interactive dynamic dashboards and reports required by all stakeholders. MegDBT also disseminates information regarding to DBT implementation in the state viz., DBT Cell Circulars, Guidelines, SOPs for DBT, Office Memorandums, etc. E-PROCUREMENT PORTAL (https://meghalayatenders.gov.in) The e-Procurement project has been implemented in Meghalaya through the Mission Mode Project (MMP) under the National eGovernance Plan (NeGP), being pursued by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Department of Commerce, Government of India. The State Apex Committee on Digital India has decided that the threshold value for the adoption of e-Procurement is Rs. 50 Lakhs and above. As on 31st August 2017, 266 Nos of Tenders value at Rs. 2008.42 Crores have been floated in the State e-Procurement Portal and 11 Departments are on board. FINANCE DEPARTMENT WEBSITE (http://megfinance.gov.in/) NIC Meghalaya has designed and developed the official website of the Finance Department and it was launched by the Chief Secretary, Govt. of Meghalaya. The website contains information on the different branches of Finance Department along with their functions and duties, e-governance initiatives, forms and Annexures required to be submitted to various authorities under the Finance Department, Acts and Rules, notification and circulars etc. The website also will improve the process of the dissemination of information from Finance Department like Government Orders, Official Memorandums, Circulars etc to various departments. PROJECTS IN THE PIPELINE The following are the ICT projects that we are planning to execute and implement for Finance Department in the near future: • Scheme Monitoring System • Debt Management System • Computerisation of Local Accounts and Audit • Implementation of Mobile payment gateway through UPI Direct Benefit Transfer portal