Guidelines for Utililisation of Grant-in-Aid by Boards

Government of West Bengal
Backward Classes Welfare Department
Administrative Building, DJ-4, Sector-II, Salt Lake, Kol – 91
Website: www.anagrasarkalyan.gov.in

No. SBCW-1265/15 Date: 05.10.2015

MEMORANDUM

Guidelines for Utilisation of Grant-in-Aid by the Boards formed under the West Bengal Societies Registration Act, 1961.

The Government has been considering for sometime past to issue comprehensive guidelines for the utilisation of grant-in-aids provided to the Boards under the administrative control of the Backward Classes Welfare Department and registered under the West Bengal Societies Registration Act, 1961, for proper utilization of the public money.

Now, the Governor is pleased hereby to frame the following guidelines based on orders issued from time to time for utilisation of the grant-in-aid given by the State Government to the Boards registered under the West Bengal Societies Registration Act, 1961:

1. Financial Rules of the State Government issued under West Bengal Financial Rules and various orders issued regarding tender, vetting etc. should be scrupulously followed.
2. Fund allotted to a Board has to be used exclusively for the purpose it is allotted and there cannot be any diversion of fund whatsoever.
3. Developmental works can be undertaken by these Boards only after the scheme has been vetted by competent Engineering Authority suitably empowered by the State Government and only when the approval to undertake these schemes has been given by the Backward Classes Welfare Department.
4. Interest accrued in the bank account can be utilised only for meeting office expenses and due approval of the Executive Committee of the Board should be taken before sanctioning such amount.
5. Annual accounts should be prepared by the Board which should be duly audited by Chartered Accountant and passed in the General Body meeting annually.
6. In no case fund sanctioned by the Department can be utilised for any other purpose than those duly authorised by the Backward Classes Welfare Department. (However, as mentioned before interest accrued on the fund can be used for meeting office expenses.)
7. For all the developmental schemes being undertaken by the Board, digital and hard copy pictures should be maintained before starting the word, when the work is 50% complete and the work is fully complete. These pictures should also have images of the beneficiaries in case it is a beneficiary oriented scheme like housing etc.
8. Selection of beneficiaries for all schemes should be done in a transparent manner. A person already having benefitted from a similar government scheme earlier should not be selected as a beneficiary of any scheme executed by any Board. Concurrence of local Block Development Officer should be taken in case of beneficiary selection.
9. In case there is ambiguity regarding any scheme/expenditure and its admissibility, matter should be referred to the Backward Classes Welfare Department for clarification.
10. The Member Secretary of the Board is a full time representative of the Government and the onus to ensure that these norms are followed and financial propriety is maintained will be on the Member Secretary of the concerned Board.
11. It is mandatory for every Board registered under the West Bengal Societies Registration Act, 1961 to file an annual return along with the list of the names, addresses and occupations of the Governing Bodies, the President, the Secretary and Office Bearers of the Society with an Annual Report by the said Governing Body on the working of the Society for the previous year together with the copy of each of the Balance Sheet and the Auditor’s Report, to the Registrar of Societies, after holding of every Annual General Meeting as provided under Section 17 of the West Bengal Societies Registration Act, 1961. The Certificate of Registration of the Board will lapse in case of any contravention of the said Act and the Grant-in-Aid shall remain suspended/ withheld.
12. This order shall take immediate effect.

Sd/- Sanjay K. Thade
Pr. Secy. to the Govt. of West Bengal.

No. SBCW-1265 dated 05.10.2015