Para 2.3.10 — The Document Management System (DMS) integrated in
Original Rule Text
2.3.10 Retention of electronic documents 2.3.10.1 Document Management System (DMS) has been made a part of the e- bill system in which all electronic documents (bill, invoice, sanction order, supporting documents, vouchers, pass orders/return orders etc.) will be stored and will be visible to respective authorities as a separate link/file and could be retrieved at any stage for post facto scrutiny, audit etc.
2.3.10.2 The e-Claim, supporting documents, e- Sanction, e-Bill, Pay Order, Pass Orders etc. along with digital signature/e-Sign of concerned authorities will be visible to sanctioning authority, DDO and PAO, even after payment. This will help in tracking the status of the claim by these users.
(Authority: CGA Office TA-2-17002(01)/2020/154 (e-4426) OM dated 12th April, 2023)
2.4 Scrutiny of Bills and Payment Procedures: 2.4.1 Bills should be passed for payment through issue of Payment Advice or cheque or in such other form as may be prescribed by Government from time to time, within a maximum of five working days of their receipt. Processing of bills for payment for purchases made on GeM should be made within two working days of their receipt from DDO through PFMS, in line with the current timelines prescribed by DoE, or as amended from time to time. The date of token generation shall be the starting point for reckoning of time for processing of payments. However, token generation shall be done on a daily basis and must not be deferred/delayed once due. Head of Accounting Organization i.e. Pr.CCAs/CCAs/CAs (i/c) as the case may be, should personally monitor their compliance. Effort should however be towards passing the bills and making payments within a shorter period, if feasible. In addition, the bills indicated as 'Immediate' by a DDO should be attended to urgently, so that the e-payment advice/cheques are issued on either the same or the next day.
Note 1: Keeping in view the increasing number of bills in PAOs and the time taken in completing the transactions, the Head of Accounting Organization may delegate powers of bills passing and thereafter applying DSC at AAO level for payment for comparatively smaller amounts. This would entail a 2 level pre-check for e-payment in place of existing 3 level checks, for the bills involving gross amount up to ₹ 25000. However, instances for issue of cheque will continue to be at PAO level. While issue of cheque by Pay and Accounts Officer, his/her role will be limited to check the amount that appears in cheque with reference to the pay order amount approved by AAO after pre-check. In case of any observations during pre-check, the bills can be returned at the level of Pay and Accounts Officer. Pay and Accounts Officer would conduct post audit/check of 10% of bills passed by AAO before submission of monthly accounts. PAO shall record a certificate to this effect in a Register in Form CAM-32 to be opened for this purpose. Pre-check of all adjustment bills against advances drawn would however be conducted by Pay and Accounts Officer irrespective of any amount. Head of Accounting Organization would obtain a certificate from PAO in compliance of the new arrangements.
Note 2: Head of Accounting Organization would monitor the disposal of bills in PAO specifically over and above delay of timelines of 2 days for GeM bills and 5 working days for other category bills as stated above and to take prompt remedial action.
2.4.2 The Pay and Accounts Officer should obtain the specimen signatures of the drawing
officers. The Senior Accountant/Accountant shall verify the signature on each bill, with the specimen signature of the concerned DDO.
2.4.3 After duly examining the bills on all aspects and recording pay order for payment both in words and figures on each bill, the Senior Accountant/Accountant should submit them to the Pay and Accounts Officer through his AAO for further scrutiny. This should be done along with the concerned 'DDO wise Bill Passing-cum-Expenditure Control Register' in Form CAM 9 in the case of PAO who do not process bill in PFMS. The Pay and Accounts Officer will examine the bills, compare the signature of the drawing officer with his specimen signature and satisfy himself of the correctness of the charges. Thereafter, he will tick off the relevant entry, affix his initials in the ECR and approve the pay orders over his full dated signature. After this, Digital Signature would be made by Pay and Accounts Officer in PFMS in respect of the bills so passed for effecting epayments or issue cheque in PFMS as the case may be. In the case of issue of cheque, the passed bill will be handed over immediately to the section for preparation of cheque. Maintenance of CAM-9 would be required in PAOs who do not process bill in PFMS so as to ensure at the time of passing each bill that the amount of the bill under check is covered by budget allotment. In the case of processing bill in PFMS, available budget under the relevant object head/s would be shown during pre-check by PAO in PFMS. Object head wise expenditure details would also be available under PFMS CAM Report No.BUD-04-Expenditure Control Register.
2.4.4 Payments in respect of outstation establishments will be done predominantly through direct credit to the account of the payee through banking channels by following the approved epayment procedure. In exceptional cases, bank drafts or cheques may be issued. The required bank drafts should be obtained from the relevant branch of the bank with which the PAO is in account, by sending a requisition available with the bank. Requisition for cancellation of the bank drafts obtained earlier or issue of fresh draft in lieu of the cancelled one should be sent separately to the bank and should not be included in the requisition. Every requisition sent to the bank shall be entered in the Register of Bank Drafts (Form CAM 12) and the Pay and Accounts Officer/Cheque drawing DDO, should watch their receipt from the bank and dispatch to the payees concerned through this Register. The bank will return one copy of the requisition Statement to the PAO while issuing bank drafts. The bank draft should be dispatched with a forwarding letter in Form CAM 13 to the party concerned by Registered Post. The details of cancellation or corrections in Demand Draft will be noted against the original entry in CAM 12.
2.4.5 The payment advice or cheque should be prepared for the net amount. When two or more bills are payable to the same person, a single payment advice or cheque can be issued for the total amount. The DH will note the cheque number or PFMS transaction ID in the case of epayments as the case may be, prominently on the bill. In case of cheque, details should be entered by DH in the Register of the Cheques Delivered and e-payment advice (Form CAM 11,11A) and submit the cheque along with the bill to the Pay and Accounts Officer (and also to the second officer authorised to sign the cheque for payments of ₹ ten lakhs and above), through the AAO. The Pay and Accounts Officer signing the cheque will tick the cheque number or details of payment advice, verify that the amount of cheque or payment advice agrees with the amount passed for payment, and then sign the cheque or apply his/her DSC after cancelling the pay order given earlier in the manual bill passed or verifying the digitally signed pay order against the e-bill passed in the system as the case may be. The passed bill together with the cheque will be returned to the Cheque Section for its delivery/dispatch. The Cheque Section will write the Daily Voucher(DV) Number on the upper right-hand corner of the manual bill. The details of payments for each day should be entered in the Register of Cheques Delivered and e-payment advice (Form CAM 11,11A), on a separate page for each day and should be reconciled daily with the PFMS Report of Register of Cheques (PC-03) in FORMAT CAM-10.
2.5.1 If for any reason it becomes necessary to return a bill without passing, it should be returned with Bill Return Memo (Form CAM 14) clearly stating the reasons for return of the bill citing rule positions and government orders including provision of contract/agreement/job order/supply order/MoU as the case may be in contractual bills. The drawer of the bill will be separately informed about the return. It must be ensured by the PAO that all observations/objections are made together in the first instance and not in piecemeal.
2.5.2 The bill will be passed for the admissible amount with the amounts considered inadmissible being disallowed, in case minor omissions/inaccuracies are noticed. Simultaneously the drawer of the bill should be intimated regarding the amount disallowed and the reasons for the disallowance. .
2.5.3 The bills can be returned at the level of PAO once. After a clarification or reply to observations made by PAO has been submitted by the executive wing through DDO to PAO and PAO is still not satisfied with the reply submitted or has additional queries then the bills may as far as possible be returned on subsequent occasions with the approval of supervisory officers such as Dy.CA/CA/CCA/Pr.CCA as the case may be. In the absence of intervening level officers, PAO, after return of bill to DDO on second or subsequent occasions, should report to supervisory officers by next working day.
2.5.4 The supervisory officers may review a sample of first-time return cases by PAO every month to ascertain that bills are not returned on flimsy ground and that the returns are made with clear observations, adequately backed by rules.
What This Means
The Document Management System (DMS) integrated into the PFMS e-bill system stores all electronic documents — bills, invoices, sanction orders, vouchers, pass orders, and return orders — in a centralized digital repository. Each document carries the digital signature or e-sign of the concerned authority and is visible to relevant users at every level. Documents can be retrieved at any stage for post-facto scrutiny, audit, or reference. This digital preservation replaces paper-based custody and ensures secure, tamper-proof record-keeping with complete audit trails.
This explanation was generated with AI assistance for educational purposes. Always refer to the official gazette notification for authoritative text.
Key Points
- 1DMS is integrated into the PFMS e-bill system for storing all electronic documents
- 2Documents include bills, invoices, sanctions, vouchers, pass orders, and return orders
- 3All documents carry digital signatures/e-signs of the concerned authorities
- 4Documents are visible to authorized users and can be retrieved anytime for audit
- 5Digital preservation ensures tamper-proof records with complete audit trails
Practical Example
An auditor from the CAG's office needs to examine a payment voucher from 18 months ago. Instead of requesting the physical file from the record room, the auditor logs into PFMS and accesses the DMS. The original e-bill, the DDO's digitally signed sanction, the PAO's pass order, and all supporting invoices are available as a linked document trail. The auditor can verify the digital signatures, check timestamps, and download the documents — all without any physical file movement.
This explanation was generated with AI assistance for educational purposes. Always refer to the official gazette notification for authoritative text.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Document Management System (DMS) in PFMS?▼
Can documents in the DMS be modified after signing?▼
Who can access documents stored in the DMS?▼
This explanation was generated with AI assistance for educational purposes. Always refer to the official gazette notification for authoritative text.