Two workshops on General awareness of Budget Terminologies, Budget Preparation, On-Line Budget Allocation and Revision were organized for officers/officials of Finance Department on 03/10/2011 and 10/10/2011 at Knowledge Centre, 9th Floor Haryana Civil Secretariat, Chandigarh. This was the first time that this kind of workshop has been organized for the Finance Department on the recommendation of Finance Secretary. The need of these workshops was felt due to the frequent transfer of staff from the Finance Department branches to other branches of the Haryana Civil Secretariat.

Finance Secretary Sh. Ajit Mohan Sharan addressed the workshops on both days and gave an overview of the existing On-line budget allocation system being developed and run by NIC throughout the state and instructed the officers/ officials to interact and discuss each and every problem being faced by them during budget preparation and expenditure control.

The General awareness on Finance Department’s role and budget activity at different levels was explained by Sh. Deepak Bansal, TD, NIC followed by the detailed demonstration on On-Line Budget Allocation system by Sh. Virender Trivedi, SSA, NIC.

The major activities undertaken during workshop include:
1.General awareness on the basic terminology required to be understood by the Finance Department officers/ officials prior to preparation of Budget.
2.Understanding of the Six-tier Codification pattern being used for the budget and especially its importance in the on-line budget allocation.
3.Demonstration of On-line Budget Allocation and its different features in detail.
4.The basic understanding of BCA (Budget Controlling Authority) and BCO (Budget Controlling Officers).
5.The activities being performed by Finance Department keeping in view the On-Line Budget Allocation.
6.The necessary requirements from the branches while issuing Releases or Re-appropriation for getting it on-line.
7.The issue of Contingency fund handing etc.
8.Different reports that can be used by the Finance Department for expenditure control were demonstrated that includes major head wise expenditure, receipt, availability, Releases and Re-appropriation etc.

The workshop was considered to be successful in every aspect and it was even suggested to organize such workshops in future also.