Implementation of COSA mandatory for DDOs

Government of West Bengal
Finance Department
Audit Branch
Writers’ Buildings, Kolkata – 700 001

No. 1829-F(Y) Dated: 01.03.2012.

MEMORANDUM

Subject: Drawal of salary bills using COSA software package.

The Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) under the control of different Departments and posted all over West Bengal have the primary responsibility to draw monthly salary bills, grants-in-aid bill and other contingency bills on behalf of their concerned offices and arrange for disbursement of the same to the ultimate claimants. The DDOs submit their bills to the designated Treasuries to which they are attached.

2. Preparation of monthly salary bills is one of the major functions of the DDOs. The Government was, in some time past, examining the matter of computerization of the said function of the DDOs. Accordingly, the National Informatics Centre (NIC) West Bengal Unit, in consultation with this Department, developed application software ‘COSA’ (Computerization of Salary Accounting) for this purpose. The ‘COSA’ software is being successfully used by more than two thousand DDOs across the State of West Bengal for more than ten years. For timely preparation of accurate salary bills and also with a view to building up a comprehensive employees’ database, the Governor has now been pleased to decide implementation of the ‘COSA’ software packages mandatorily in all State Government Offices and other Autonomous Bodies which draw their pay bills and Gant-in-Aid Salary bills from the Government Treasuries/ Pay & Accounts Offices.

3. Presently around 70% of the DDO offices located all over West Bengal are still preparing their monthly pay bills manually. Delay in implementation of COSA application software package in these offices is either due to non-availability of requisite computer facilities or absence of adequate technical support for the said software package. To overcome these problems, the State Government has decided to associate the services of selected agencies to accelerate computerization of monthly salary bills by implementing COSA initially at all the State Government Offices and then at the offices of the Autonomous Bodies (Municipalities/ Panchayats/ Educational Institutions etc.) which draw pay bills and Grant-in-Aid Salary bills from Government Treasuries/ Pay & Accounts Offices.

4. For the purpose of selection of agencies to render technical support for the ‘COSA’ software package, the location of the DDO offices has been divided into 6(six) zones comprising of different Districts as mentioned overleaf:-

Selection of agency for each zone has been made through a tender process. The name and contact nos. etc. of the selected agency for each Zone has been mentioned at Annexure-I.

5. The basic function of the selected agencies would be:-

i) To provide technical support services to the DDO-offices where COSA have already been implemented.
ii) To implement COSA in DDO-offices where PCs and Printers are available but COSA has not been implemented due to lack of technical supports.
iii) For the rest of DDOs, Facility Centres will be set up with two PC and two Printers in all the Treasuries/ Pay & Accounts Offices to be manned by technical support personnel of the selected vendors from where DDOs can get their job done.

The Comprehensive support and services to be provided by the selected agencies have been indicated at Annexure-II.

6. There are 20 (twenty) items of expenditure on account of the support/ service charges. The charges applicable for each Zone for each support/ service area have been indicated in Annexure-lII. The payment for Technical Support service shall be made by the respective DDO who call for the service. The charges shall be payable ‘on-call’ basis.

The overall responsibility of the Drawing Disbursing Officers will be:-

a) To arrange PCs and Printers for running of COSA application package for generation of monthly salary bills,
b) To ensure that the machines are in good conditions and virus-free.
c) To train at least two persons for running COSA application package/ preparing database/ updating database before generation of monthly salary bills.
d) To take back-up of updated database at the end of the day.
e) To keep access to the COSA database secured by utilizing users’ access control mechanism like secret password.
f) The persons so deployed shall keep close liaison with the support personnel of the selected vendor for trouble-free operations.
g) In case of DDOs who are using application packages for pay-bills generation other than the COSA developed by NIC, data migration, if required, for switching over to the COSA have to be done by the DDOs at their own initiatives.

7. For the DDOs, who do not have IT facilities in their offices, the Governor has been pleased to delegate the financial power to the ‘Head of Office’ for the one time procurement of not more than two units of PCs, two Printers and one UPS of reputed brand (including infrastructural facility), locally, as per configuration suggested by NIC within the rate as approved by this Department, subject to requirement of the concerned office and availability of fund under their respective service head, at the earliest, but within the Financial Year 2012- 13. The configuration of the hardware and the approved rates (maximum limit) of the IT items have been indicated in Annexure-IV. The WEBEL Technology Limited has sent their consent to supply those IT items within rate specified in Annexure-IV. Copy of their consent letter is attached with this Order as Annexure-VI. If required, the ‘Head of Office’ may procure the above IT items from The WEBEL Technology Limited. The procurement of computer systems etc. may be done in accordance with procedures laid down in Finance Department orders issued vide Memo No. 1782-F dated 01.03.2006.

8. It has been decided by the Government that the basic data for the development of the ‘Employees Database’ shall be captured through ‘COSA’ software package. Accordingly, the modules for capturing all information/ inputs, as suggested by the 13^th Finance Commission, have been incorporated in the said package. The items of information to be captured through COSA software package have been indicated on Annexure-V. Henceforth, the DDO shall submit the data of each regular salary bill including employees’ detail in digitized format in pen-drive or CD at the Treasury, along with printed Salary Bill. COSA software package has been up-graded accordingly so that the DDO can generate such data in electronic mode. One part of such data shall be captured as input for entry of salary bill at the Treasury Computer Package and the other part of the data shall be transmitted to ‘Employees’ Database Server’ through Treasury Server linked with each salary bill of each DDO.

All the work relating to the preparation and presentation of regular salary bills in the above mentioned mode through COSA software package should” be completed by all the DDOs including the DDOs who draw the Grant- in-Aid Salary Bills on a priority basis, latest by 30.06.2012 and the Treasuries/ Pay and Offices will not be able to accept any regular salary bill including Grant-in-Aid Salary Bill from the DDOs on and from 01.07.2012 if the bill is not COSA software generated bill in both the modes i.e. electronic mode as well as printed mode.

Sd/- H. K.Dwivedi
Secretary to the Government of West Bengal.

No. 1829-F dated 01.03.2012, Source