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Regarding Delegation of Financial Powers to the Heads of Department under
C.B.E.C. in the matter of Purchase of Computers, Awarding Annual Maintenance
Contracts, Site Preparation, Training in Computers etc.
Customs
Circular No. 67 dated 9th October 2002
Reference
is invited to Ministry�s Circular No. 29/ 2001-Cus. dated 16th May
2001 issued from F. No. D-21019/ 52/ AMC/ 99/ CC/ CBEC delegating financial
powers in the matter of award of AMC for computer hardware etc. The matter has
been further considered by the Ministry and the following delegation of powers
to Heads of Department under the Central Board of Excise and Customs is hereby
ordered superceding the aforementioned order:-
(1)
Site preparation for installation of computers:
It
has been decided that the Heads of Departments can incur expenditure upto Rs. 2
lakhs in a financial year for site preparation for installation of computers.
This may include creation of partitions, electrical cabling, procurement of UPS,
installation of air conditioners and other related items of civil and electrical
work required to be completed for installation of computers.
(2)
Maintenance of site for computers:
In
the instructions dated 16th May, 2001as referred to above, it was
clarified that maintenance of computer site would refer to maintenance of DG
sets, air conditioners, electrical installations, UPS etc. for the computers. It
was also indicated therein that
Ministry�s prior sanction was required to be obtained for award of maintenance
contracts for computer sites. It has now been decided to empower the Heads of Departments to incur expenditure up
to Rs.2 lakhs in a financial year on maintenance of computer sites.
(3)
Training in computers:
Presently
all proposals for imparting training in computers to officers and staff of the
field formations are forwarded to the Ministry for administrative approval and
financial sanction. It has been decided that the Heads of Departments can incur
expenditure up to Rs.1 lakh in a financial year for training their employees in
computer operations as per the courses that have been prescribed by the
Directorate of Systems. This delegation has been agreed only upto 31st
March, 2004, by which time it is expected that all the officers would have
acquired the necessary computer skills. It is also been advised that by then in-
house training facilities should be organized.
(4)
Purchase/ Procurement of Personal Computers/ Hardware:
As
per the existing delegation of financial powers under item no. 26 (a) (ii) of
Schedule V of DFPRs, Heads of Department can purchase computers upto a total of
Rs.1 Lakh only in a financial year. It has been decided to empower the Heads of
Department to incur expenditure upto Rs.5 lakhs in a financial year for
procurement of personal computers and other related items without seeking
approval of the Ministry.
In
order to ensure that the computers procured by the field formations are put to
meaningful use, it is desirable that certain minimum performance criteria is
achieved by the field formations. In this context, it has been decided that:-
(a)
All the personal computers in the Custom Houses/ Commissionerates/
Directorates Hqrs. or Divisional Hqrs. should be connected in a Local Area
Network (LAN) so that the information is shared amongst the various offices/
sections. The PCs on the LAN are, however, not to be connected to the Internet
for security reasons.
(b)
Officers should make increased use of E-mail facility for inter and intra
office communication.
(c)
Automation of various activities/ departments such as accounts,
establishment, technical section, legal section, adjudications, appeals, audit,
statistics, review, vigilance, preventive etc. should be carried out in a time
bound manner. The Directorate of Inspection would be specifically reviewing the
progress made in automating activities in the different section as a part of the
routine inspection of Custom House/ Commissionerates/ Directorates and
divisional offices. Integrated Finance Unit (IFU) of the Ministry has desired
that
(d)
The observations on this aspect of the inspection shall be forwarded to
IFU for information.
(5)
Annual Maintenance Contract of Computer (Hardware) excluding sites:
Computers
generally include maintenance of computer hardware (processors, memory etc.) and
peripherals (printers, plotters, scanners, modems, secondary storage devices
etc.). As per item No. 26 (b) of Schedule V of the Delegation of Financial Power
Rules, Heads of Departments have full powers for maintenance of computers when
the work is entrusted to public sector undertakings. The provisions of the
General Financial Rules will have to be observed in all cases of award of AMC
for computer hardware. In case the lowest bidder happens to be public sector
undertakings, the Head of the Department will have powers to award AMC to such
PSU at his level itself. However, if the lowest bidder is a non-PSU, the Head of
the Department has been delegated powers to the extent of Rs. 2 lakhs per annum
for award of AMC to private parties
vide Ministry�s aforesaid instructions
dated 16.5.2001
(6)
Software Development:
It
has also been decided by the Ministry to empower the Heads of Departments to
incur expenditure upto Rs.50,000/- in a financial year for development of
software. This is intended to fulfil the local needs of the Commissionerate/
Directorate/ Custom house for automating the activities in the various sections/
branches of the Commissionerates/ Directorates/ Custom Houses. However, the
Directorate of Systems should be informed of the proposed development so that
the resources are shared across all field formations and the extra expenditure
is avoided for activities for which software is already available in some other
field formation.
The
powers delegated above will be exercised by Head of Departments under Central
Board of Excise and Customs subject to availability of sanctioned budget and
subject to following conditions and procedures as laid down by Delegation of
Financial Rules, 1978 and General Finance Rules.
All
proposals in excess of the above powers shall continue to be sent to the
Ministry through Commissioner (Systems). All Heads of Departments are advised to
send consolidated proposal for their Commissionerate/ Directorate. The proposal
shall indicate clearly that Head of Department has exercised his delegated power
to incur expenditure in respect of the items of expenditure mentioned above.
This
issue with the approval of IFU vide their Dy No. F 3359/ FA (F)/ 2002 Dt
12.8.2002
Kindly
acknowledge the receipt of this letter.
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