Class on double entry system for city councilors

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: What is an accrual-based double entry system? If the question is posed to the city’s councillors, they would have no answer. For, very few have an idea of how the Corporation manages its money-books. Which was revealed in the discussions held on the issue of e-governance in the Council on Thursday. So, now, the Mayor and Finance Committee Chairman have decided to give the Finance Committee members and those interested councillors a class on accrual-based double entry system, which is the accounting system followed by the City Corporation, on June 15.On Thursday, when the Council met, the account-keeping of the Corporation was one of the issues that stole the time of the ruling members and energy of the Opposition when a ruckus was born over it. Mayor K Chandrika, in an official agenda, sought the approval of the Council to pass a revised DPR for the e-governance project to be implemented in the Corporation for better account-keeping as part of a Centre-sponsored scheme.According to her, the project falls under the JNNURM scheme and was given to Thiruvananthapuram as a pilot project. The Detailed Project Report (DPR) was prepared by a consultancy and submitted to the Centre for an estimate of Rs 17.35 crore. But the Centre has now asked for a revision, making the total cost of the project Rs 16. 33 crore. However, the problem arose when BJP leader Ashok Kumar, also a member of the Finance Committee, said that the Committee had not forwarded the agenda. He said that in the earlier Finance Committee meeting, he had asked for the details of the accrual-based accounting system and about the new e-governance project. Though it was promised that the details would be provided during the meeting held on Thursday morning, it was not done. The IT official had not bothered to give the details, Ashok Kumar said. Then how did the agenda find its way to the Council, he asked. To this, Deputy Mayor G Happykumar said that the e-governance project was approved by the last Council  and only a slight revision was being made now. It has to be submitted to the Centre as early as possible if the project has to take off,  since the deadline for JNNURM projects falls in 2012. This was seconded by the Mayor too. BJP councillor M R Rajiv said that the figures published in the website of the Corporation provides information that is not matching with the accounts of the Finance Committee. He said that the councillors have not been provided any details on the accounts of the Corporation and demanded to know the facts. Finally, after much discussions and fiery exchanges between UDF and LDF leaders, the matter was closed and the resolution passed.