This story is from May 22, 2018

Urban affairs department moots municipal finance cadre

"As per the proposal, municipal finance cadre has been recommended for the nine cities chosen for the AMRUT Scheme in the state.The cadre should include chartered accountants or designated finance officers.
Urban affairs department moots municipal finance cadre
Representative image
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The department of urban affairs has proposed formation of a municipal finance cadre in the state, reinforcing the need to get trained personnel in civic bodies to augment utilization of plan funds and funds for centrally-sponsored schemes. The proposal has been submitted to the state high powered steering committee.
Officials with the department said that a special finance cadre had become a necessity in view of the recurring instances of dwindling plan fund utilization and shoddy usage of funds in centrally-sponsored schemes in civic bodies in the state.

"As per the proposal, municipal finance cadre has been recommended for the nine cities chosen for the AMRUT Scheme in the state. The cadre should include chartered accountants or designated finance officers. At present it is often the clerks who are not well versed in financial matters deal with the handling of plan funds. The municipal secretaries are always overburdened. This has resulted in poorly planned municipal budgets and unscientific utilization of funds," an official at urban affairs directorate said.
The nine cities -- six corporations and three municipalities -- handle 389 projects to the tune of Rs 2,356.14 crore in the state under AMRUT. Ministry of housing and urban affairs moots partnership models and raising of municipal finance bonds for implementation of projects like AMRUT and Smart City. According to project officials, the civic bodies in the state do not have the required staff to cater to such needs.
Even in case of plan fund utilization, civic bodies like municipalities and corporations have performed poorly over the past one decade as most often project implementation seldom matches the proposed financial plan in the civic body budgets.
The total budget allocation for municipalities in the state for 2018-19 is Rs 1,798.01 crore and Rs 1,392.58 crore for corporations. The total plan expenditure of municipalities for 2017-18 was 82.66% and for corporations, 77.65%.

A compiled report on utilization of plan funds in local bodies in Kerala by the local self-government department shows that the fund allocation for municipalities increased from Rs 121.5 crore in 2003-04 to Rs 395.95 crore in 2013-14, however the percentage of expenditure dipped from 93.56 to 73.14 during the same period. Things were no different for corporations in the state as the plan expenditure dipped from 78.22% in 2003-04 to 59.04% by 2013-14.
The proposal for municipal finance cadre will also necessitate creation of additional posts and finding extra reserve of funds for remuneration. The state government is already struggling to meet the monthly demands of civic bodies, especially the newly-formed municipalities, following delimitation.
"Even in case of newly formed municipality like Anthur, it required lot of time for the state government to allocate new posts because of fund crunch. It has to be seen how finance department would entertain such a proposal," said an official.
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