The Defence Minister Mr AK Antony, today dedicated the
Indian Navy's Financial Information System (FIS) to the
Nation.
Lauding the Navy's initiative as a major initiative in the
field of financial management Mr Antony said "I hope other two
services and all the other departments of the Government of
India will follow this timely and useful initiative of the
Indian navy. I would like to congratulate the navy for taking
this timely initiative".
Speaking about the need for judicious utilization of the
nations fiscal resources, Mr Antony said "Now our defence
budget is touching nearly 2 lakhs crores, in actual terms
1,93,000 Crores, and in the years to come this will further
step up every year, substantial step up is there. But even then
considering the security scenario around us we will not be able
to find resources as per the aspirations of the armed forces
fully". Emphasizing the importance of laying out proper
priorities he said that "We have prepared the annual plan, five
year plan and the LTIPP upto 2027". Urging other Armed Forces
to take a cue from the Indian Navy's initiative Mr Antony said
"if the other services follow, will help you also, for a proper
planning how to utilise our rare resources". Ever conscious of
the need for fiscal prudence Mr Antony stressed this aspect
saying "Every rupee that we get from the Indian Tax payer we
must utilise it properly effectively and as per the priority.
That is why I feel it is a very timely initiative by Indian
Navy. It will help entire nation even at least entire
government if we can follow this initiative with all the
departments of the Government of India".
The FIS, a comprehensive financial information system, will
facilitate effective planning, allotment, expenditure and
monitoring of the Naval Budget. The system links the New Delhi
based Naval Headquarters with the three Command Headquarters
and various ships and establishments located far and wide
across the country.
The onerous task of Budget Management involved monitoring
allotment and expenditure across about five hundred Code heads
being spent by six hundred and fifty units across the Navy. The
implementation of FIS marks a transition from the predominantly
manual system of budget management and will reduce the delays
and efforts involved in data collation and reporting, inherent
in any manual system. By consolidating the transactions of
disparate organizations across the various code heads on a
single unified platform FIS will enable timely decision making
to ensure optimal utilisation of budget.
Saying that the FIS "is another step in the series of measures
to bring about more probity, accountability and transparency in
our public dealings and financial transactions", Mr Antony
stressed upon the need to "Overcome existing constraints and
enhance integration of CDAs to ensure maximum utilisation of
the FIS".
The Financial Information System (Navy) is built on SAP
Enterprise Resource Planning tools and has been custom
configured and developed by M/s Wipro for the Indian Navy.
Earlier in the function, giving the welcome address the Vice
Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral RK Dhowan had pointed out
that the Indian Navy had fully utilized it's allocated budget
for the last six years. It is pertinent to highlight that the
Indian Navy has consistently maintained a healthy ratio of
capital budget to revenue budget. For the year 2012-13 the
budget allocation for the Indian Navy stands at 68:32 for
Capital: Revenue budget.