Assam: Timely audits ordered for retiring headmasters and principals in state

Staff Reporter

Guwahati: The Finance Department has issued guidelines for the timely completion of audits for retiring heads of government and provincialized educational institutions in the state. Due to not completing such audits on time, many retired principals and headmasters have been deprived of getting their pensions, it is alleged.

The Finance Department, through an order, has asked the Director of Audit (Local Fund), Assam, to prioritize audits for heads of educational institutions who are retiring the same year. The audit reports have to be submitted within 30 days for institutions under Higher Education and 15 days for institutions under Elementary and Secondary Education.

Regarding coordination between departments, the order said the Administrative Reforms, Training, Pension, and Public Grievances (ARTP&PG) department should work closely with the Education Department and the Director of Pension to ensure prompt issuance and uploading of provisional pensions.

For timely submission of audit documents, the Education Department has been directed to instruct retiring teachers to submit all audit-related documents to the Director of Audit (Local Fund), Assam, within one month of their retirement to expedite the audit process and avoid delays in final pension disbursement.

To expedite audits, the Director has been asked to expedite the audit of submitted school documents and notify the schools concerned upon completion. Provision has to be made for the training of headmasters on maintaining and submitting audit documents to prevent future delays.

Provisional pensions can be issued without an audit report, whereas final pensions require an audit report. It was earlier stated by the Secondary Education department that provisional pensions should be sanctioned by the competent authority based on a non-liability certificate. However, final pensions require an audit report from the Director of Audit (Local Fund), Assam.

These measures, to ensure a seamless pension release process for educational institution principals and headmasters, were taken in response to queries from the Assam Madhyamik Sikshak Aru Karmachari Sanstha. Sanstha general secretary Gobinda Chandra Kalita said, “Earlier the heads of institutions due to retire were told that the audit would be done only after March-end and that the name of the institution should be empanelled. These measures will make the pension process for headmasters and principals much easier, but we want that there should be no necessity of an audit for heads of institutions, as is the norm for heads of other departments.”

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