General Financial Rules CHAPTER 6 ESTABLISHMENT \LTERATIONS OF ESTABLISHMENT. 116. The powers of sanction of various subordinate authorities in the Civil Departments in the matter of creation of permanent or temporary posts are specified in the Delegation of Financial Powers. The powers of subordinate authorities in the Railway Department are laid down in the Financial Codes and Regulations of that Department. All proposals for additions to establishment, whether permanent or temporary, or for any increase in the emoluments of existing posts, should be scrutinised with the greatest care by heads of departments and other authorities concerned. In submitting such proposals, the instructions contained in the following paragraphs should be carefully observed. 117, When the entertainment of a new establishment or a change, temporary or permanent, is Proposed in an office, a letter fully explaining. the proposal and the conditions which have given tise (o them, together with the proposition statement, if necessary under Para. 119, should be submitted to the competent authority. In this letter should be set out inser alia (i) the present cost, either ofthe section or sections affected, or of the total establishment as the circumstances of the case may indicate to be necessary; ii) details of the pay of the post or posts and the number of posts which it is proposed to add or modify; and ii) as accurate an es iate as possible of the extra cost involved. Note I: In determining the extra cost, allowance, whether fixed or variable, should be included. ‘Note 2: The authorities submitting the proposals should take into account any claims to pensions that may arise in consequence of their proposals with reference to Article 429 of the Civil Service Regulations and certify to their having done so in thelr proposals. 118, If the expenditure is proposed to be incurred in the current year, the proposals should show clearly whether it can be met within the grant or appropriation of the year. If the expenditure can be met by reappropristion, a reappropriation statement prescribed in Para 108 should be submitted with the proposals. 119. Whenever any large scale or complicated proposals are made for the revision of existing or the creation of new establishments (including all proposals which requite the sanction of Government), the letter explaining the proposal should be accompanied by a proposition statement in Form GER.12 and submitted through the Accounts Officer who will verify the correctness of the statement. 120. The detail principles: to be shown in proposition statements should be determined by the following (i) The proposition statement should relate strictly to the section or part of the office affected by the proposals. As regards the other parts or sections of the office neither details nor figures of total cost need be included. 35General Financial Rules (ii) Where a section consists of both class IV and superior Goverment servants, details need be given only of class affected, if a saving of labour will result from the adoption of this procedure. Gi) Where the pay of any post, existing or proposed, rises from a minimum to a maximum by periodical increments, the average monthly cost, and not the actual or the commencing cost, must be given (iv) The fixed allowance referred to in Note 1 below Para. 117 should be entered in the proposition statement but the variable allowances need not be included therein, IE - VARIATION IN SANCTIONED PAY OF A POST 121. The head of an office is not at liberty to re-adjust the pay of Government servants by giving one Government servant more and another less than the sanctioned pay of his post; nor may he distribute the pay of an absentee otherwise than as provided in the rules governing the service to which the Government servant belongs. II - TRANSFER OF OFFICE 122. Every transfer of charge of a Gazetted officer should be reported to the Accounts Officer. The report should be made in Form TR. I unless any other form has been duly authorised, and should simultaneously be sent to the head of the department or other controlling authority concemed. 123. In cases in which the transfer of charge involves assumption of responsibility for cash, stores, etc., the following instructions should be observed:~ (i) The cash book or imprest account should be closed on the date of transfer and a rote recorded in it over the signature of both the relieved and the relieving officers, showing the cash and imprest balances, and the number of unused cheques, if any, made over and received by them respectively. (i) The relieving officer in reporting that the transfer has been completed should bring to notice anything irregular or objectionable in the conduct of business that may have come officially to his notice. He should examine the accounts, count the cash, inspect the stores, count, weigh and measure certain selected articles in order to test the accuracy of the returns, He should also describe the state of the account records. (iii)In the case of any sudden casualty occurring or any emergent necessity arising for an officer to quit his charge, the next senior officer of the department present will take charge. When the person who takes charge is not a Gazetted officer, he must at once report the circumstances to his nearest departmental supervisor, and obtain orders as to the cash in hand, if any. Note: The special procedure to be followed when there is a change in the incumbency of independent charge of the treasury is laid down in SR. 6(e) of the Treasury Rules. IV -DATE OF BIRTH 124, Every person newly appointed to a service or a post under Government should at the time of the appointment declare the date of his birth by the Christian era with as far as possible confirmatory documentary evidence, such as, Matriculation Certificate, Secondary School Certificate, Municipal Birth Certificate and so on. If the exact date is not known, an approximate date may be given. The actual date or the assumed date determined under Para 125 should be recorded in the history of 36General Financial Rules service, service book, or any other record that may be kept in respect of the Government servant's service under Government and once recorded, it cannot be altered, except in the case of a clerical error, without the previous orders of the competent authority. 125. (1) Ifa Government servant is unable to state his exact date of birth but can state the year, or year and month of birth, the Ist July or the 16th of the month, respectively, may be treated as the date of his birth, (2) Ihe is only able to state his approximate age, his date of birth may be assumed to be the corresponding date after deducting the number of years representing his age from his date of appointment. (3) When a person who first entered military employ is subsequently employed in a Civil department, the date of birth for the purpose of the civil employment should be the date stated by him at the time of attestation, or if at the time of attestation he stated only his age, the date of birth should be deduced with reference to that age according to the method indicated in sub-para, (2) above. ‘Note: Cases in which the date of birth has been deduced from the age at appointment or attestation by any other ‘method, need not be reopened. V- LEAVE APPLICATIONS 126, Subject to any special rules or orders issued by the competent authority, all applications for leave should be submitted to the sanctioning authority concerned on Form G.F.R.13 VI- ANNUAL RETURNS OF NON- GAZETTED ESTABLISHMENTS 127, Early in July each year, a detailed statement of the permanent establishment existing on the Ist July should be prepared by each head of office and transmitted to the Accounts Officer direct, as soon as possible, not later than the 1Sth August, The directions given by the Auditor General with regard to the form, preparation and submission of these returns are contained in Appendix 5 ‘Note: ‘The detailed statement should be prepared in two parts, one for permanent establishment including Permanent and officiating incumbents of permanent posts and the other covering all temporary posts in existence on the first of July VIL - SERVICE BOOKS 128, The detailed rules regarding the maintenance of Service Books are contained in the Supplementary Rules 197 to 203 and in Articles 188 and 189 of the Audit Code. 129. (1) Ata fixed time early in the year the service books should be taken up for verification by the head of the office who, after satisfying himself that the services of the Government servant concerned are correctly recorded in each service book, should record in it a certificate in the following form over his signature: “ service verified up to (date) from ( the record from which the verification is made.) Note: The verification of service refered to above should be in respect ofall service qualifying for pension ‘whether permanent, temporary or officiating. (2) ‘The head of the office in recording the annual certificate of verification should, in the case of any portion of service that cannot be verified from office records, distinctly state that for the said periods (naming them) a statement in writing by the Government servant, as well as a record of the evidence of his contemporaries, is attached to the book. 7General Financial Rules When, however, a non-Gazetted Government servant is transferred from one office to another , the head of the office under whom he was originally employed should record in the service book under his signature the result of the verification of service, with reference to pay bills and acquittance rolls, in respect of the whole period during which the Government servant was employed under him, before forwarding the service book to the office where the services are transferred. (3) When non-Gazetted Government servants are officiating in Gazetted posts, their service books should be kept by the head of the office to which each such Government servant permanently belongs, but when they are confirmed in such posts, their service books should be forwarded to the concerned Account Officer for record. VIII - SERVICE ROLLS 130, Service rolls for Government servants, when they are maintained under Supplementary Rules 204 and 205, should be taken up every year for verification of service and record of necessary certificate in the manner laid down in Para. 129. IX- ARREAR CLAIMS 131. Powers of investigation of arrears claims of Government Servants as delegated by the Government are mentioned in the Delegation of Financial Powers issued by the Government from time to time under Para 41, 42 and 43. Note: For the purpose of this investigation, the date on which the claim is presented at any office of disbursement should be considered to be the date on which itis preferred. 132. Claims against Government, which are barred by time under the provisions contained in Section 3 read with the First Schedule of the Limitation Act of 1908 or under any other provisions of Jaw relating to limitation, should ordinarily be refused and no claim on account of such a time barred item should be paid without the sanction of Government. The onus is upon the claimant to establish a claim to special treatment for a time barred item, and itis the duty of the authority against which sach acclaim is made to refuse the claim until a case for other treatment is made out, All petty time barred claims are to be rejected forthwith and only important claims of this nature considered. It is the duty of the authority against which a claim is made to consider in the first instance the question of a time-bar before submitting it to the relevant authority for the issue of authority for payment. The Accounts Officer will refuse payment of all claims found to be time barred until the sanction of Government has been obtained. 133. All petty claims of a Government servant more than three years old, other than those that affect his pension, and all such claims for whose delayed submission an adequate explanation is not forthcoming, should be rejected forthwith. In considering old claims recommended for sanction, the authority concemed will also take into account the fact that it is normally not possible owing to the limited period of preservation of records to audit claims more than six years old, 134, The authority competent to authorise the investigation of a belated claim should be told why the claim was not submitted when it became due. In respect of non-Gazetted Government servants whose pay and allowances are drawn on establishment bills by the Heads of Offices, the responsibility for making claims rests on the latter and they should invariably see that all claims are presented within six months of their falling due. The time limits prescribed in these instructions should be calculated from the date on which the charge becomes payable. In the case of sanction accorded with retrospective effect, the charge does not become payable before it is sanctioned; the time limits, should, therefore, be calculated from the date of sanction and not from the date from which the sanction takes effect. 38