AG miffed at delay in submission of pension papers by govt depts

Haryana Accountant General (AG) Balwinder Singh on Thursday pulled up the state government departments for not submitting pension and general provident fund (GPF) cases within the stipulated time,which lead to inordinate delay in release of social security benefits to retirees. All government departments’ record in sending pension information in advance to the AG office was extremely poor,he remarked.

“Majority of government departments are not adhering to the timeline for submission of pension and GPF cases,which causes delay in release of payment to be made to employees who are going to retire,” regretted the AG. He said except for a few government departments,such as education,the problem of delay was common.

Singh said he has taken up the matter of delay in sending pension information with the Haryana Chief Secretary a number of times. “Whenever I write to the chief secretary about the problem,things smoothen for 3-4 months,but then it starts again,” he said.

He said the AG’s office in Haryana maintains 2.52 lakh GPF cases and authorises pensionary benefits to retired officials of state government departments and former members of the state legislature,among others. The callousness of the state government departments could be gauged from the fact that the AG office received just 17 per cent pension cases during the period of January 1,2009 to December 31,2009 in time,he said.