Srinagar: Omar Abdullah, the former chief minister and working president National Conference on Tuesday said that the first decision of the new Finance Minister was a reversal of reforms. This was the first reaction to the first decision of the new incumbent in finance ministry after Dr Haseeb Drabu’s sacking 24 hours earlier.
“First decision of the new Finance Minister is to reverse a reform his Govt had bragged about,” Omar wrote on Twitter. “Is there more to Haseeb’s dismissal than just his speech?”
Earlier, after holding the additional charge of the Finance Ministry, Syed Altaf Bukhari ordered the deferment of Pay and Accounts Office (PAO) System till March 2018, for almost two fortnights. The PAO system is an automated bill payment system that reduces human intervention. It was initiated to replace the archaic treasury systems across the state and rolled out to a few departments for a start.
As per an order issued by the Finance Department “The implementation of Pay & Accounts Office System, rolled out vide Government Order No 43-F of 2018 dated 08-02-2018 is kept in abeyance till March 31st, 2018 in the first place,” a formal statement issued by the government said. “The readiness of stakeholders as well as a foolproof technical platform will be reviewed before the rollout of the system early next financial year. We may keep in abeyance the implementation of PAO System till March 31, 2018, in the first place.”
The order came after Bukhari had told reporters that Jammu and Kashmir finance department was run by a very competent man and that he will continue all good work which was done by Haseeb Drabu.
