Tenkasi S.Jawahar was born and brought up in Delhi by his parents Subramanyam and Sarojini. On passing the civil services exam, the bright youngster joined the Government of Tamilnadu and served in a number of departments over the years. He has worked both, the Centre and the State with aplomb. Tenkasi S.Jawahar was awarded the Best Collector award by the Government of Tamilnadu in recognition of his services rendered post Tsunami at Nagapattinam which happened to be one of the worst affected districts. He is known for his unique approach and accessibility in spite of his frenetic schedule. The workaholic administrator is now the Principal Secretary/Commissioner, Treasuries & Accounts: Government of Tamilnadu. His whirlwind visit of the districts has made a positive impression with the people concerned and he was happy to share the details of his current mission while on a visit to Coimbatore and Tirupur.
"The treasury has 291 offices all over the State and the entire fund flow of the Government is channelized through this department. The payment of salaries to about 900000 Government employees and 650000 pensioners are through this department and a sum of about Rs.140000 crores was handled in the financial year 2016 - 2017. The monthly accounts of the entire State was once submitted to the AG office by the 18th of each month and thanks to the co operation of the thousands of people serving the treasury it has been brought to the 12th of each succeeding thereby breaking a 30 year record. We are now in the midst of integrating the Finance & HR Management system of the entire State and among other things this involves the digitisation of the Service Records of all the 900000 Government employees by the September of 2017. Once digitised, all the entries of the Service Record will be done on line and in real time. This will be a huge advantage for the Government servants for it will bring about transparency by also enabling them to view and verify their own records." stated the ebullient senior bureaucrat.
The Commissioner is visiting all the districts in order to hold field meetings and take this innovation forward in a fast paced manner. He is one of the few to have clocked over 500000 kilometres by road and takes enormous efforts to motivate everyone concerned through his field visits. He was keen to add more details about the historic and innovative work that is being undertaken by him, "At the moment we are using several individual software packages like payroll package called web payroll or packages like the ABPS (Automated Bill Passing System). Now we are in the process of integrating the entire system with the aid of one system and this will ensure seamless transactions within the treasury system while also maintaining accuracy and reducing workload besides reducing chances of error or fraud. Ultimately the people will gain and revenues will be used more efficiently in the long run. This process will has to be completed by the September of 2017. I will keep up with my visits all around until the new system is implemented."
Tenkasi S.Jawahar displays humility while talking about his career goals, "I do not make any plans regarding my career and all that I do is to strive to hasten the job given to me in a transparent cum efficient manner." He immediately shared the details of the next initiative of the treasury department, "Currently more than 650000 pensioners are being serviced by the treasury and in order to address grievances of the retired I have got my mobile phone number displayed in all the 291 offices in the State plus it is found on the departmental web site too. It helps in two ways, people will call me if there is a grievance and will keep calling until it is resolved. Next, it will put a moral pressure on the employees of the department to perform efficiently. Every year the pensioners have been required to physically visit the office where their pension is disbursed in order to get certified that they are alive. This process is called mustering and it happens during the months of summer. One can understand the difficulty of the aged pensioner in this regard and therefore we have now introduced the "Digital Life Certificate" which was introduced by the Narendra Modi Government three years ago. According to this method a pensioner registers his finger print onto a finger print reader available in any of the e-seva centres of the Government of Tamilnadu or can be done through other arrangements too from any part of the world and the same has to be sent through the "Jeevan Praman Portal" which is linked to the Adhaar card data in order to get his biometrics verified in real time. This will therefore be sufficient enough to certify that he or she is alive and this will eventually make the cumbersome muster a thing of the past. The initiative will reduce work in the offices and also the anxieties for the aged pensioners. The first year of its implementation saw about 20 % getting registered under this process and it is expected to reach 50 % during the current year."
The hands of this hard working senior bureaucrat are full due to the simultaneous implementation of all these initiatives and he makes it a point to hold district level meetings with district level officers in front of the Collector. He is crisp and upto the point while talking about the work that needs to be done. He added further by stating an important point, "The work of the treasury can affect the performance of all the departments and even a day of delay can cause enormous anguish to the employees and this will reflect on their performance in a big way. So it becomes incumbent upon me to make sure that all the 4500 people working with the treasury are made to do their best. Hence its required of me to motivate them wholeheartedly by being in touch with them through extensive field visits. Efforts once channelized properly will ensure good delivery."
Tenkasi S.Jawahar has been a go getter from day one and his work in connection with the de-silting of water channels in Nagapattinam making use of the MNREGA scheme is worth recalling for he used to be in the field everyday. "Being in the field adds to our work load for we have to spend additional hours at the office in order to complete the requisite paper work. However every moment is worth the trouble for there is no limit to the joy that unfolds when we see the benefits reaching the grass roots." smiles the committed bureaucrat who displays enormous linguistic proficiency at all times.
"The treasury has 291 offices all over the State and the entire fund flow of the Government is channelized through this department. The payment of salaries to about 900000 Government employees and 650000 pensioners are through this department and a sum of about Rs.140000 crores was handled in the financial year 2016 - 2017. The monthly accounts of the entire State was once submitted to the AG office by the 18th of each month and thanks to the co operation of the thousands of people serving the treasury it has been brought to the 12th of each succeeding thereby breaking a 30 year record. We are now in the midst of integrating the Finance & HR Management system of the entire State and among other things this involves the digitisation of the Service Records of all the 900000 Government employees by the September of 2017. Once digitised, all the entries of the Service Record will be done on line and in real time. This will be a huge advantage for the Government servants for it will bring about transparency by also enabling them to view and verify their own records." stated the ebullient senior bureaucrat.
The Commissioner is visiting all the districts in order to hold field meetings and take this innovation forward in a fast paced manner. He is one of the few to have clocked over 500000 kilometres by road and takes enormous efforts to motivate everyone concerned through his field visits. He was keen to add more details about the historic and innovative work that is being undertaken by him, "At the moment we are using several individual software packages like payroll package called web payroll or packages like the ABPS (Automated Bill Passing System). Now we are in the process of integrating the entire system with the aid of one system and this will ensure seamless transactions within the treasury system while also maintaining accuracy and reducing workload besides reducing chances of error or fraud. Ultimately the people will gain and revenues will be used more efficiently in the long run. This process will has to be completed by the September of 2017. I will keep up with my visits all around until the new system is implemented."
Tenkasi S.Jawahar displays humility while talking about his career goals, "I do not make any plans regarding my career and all that I do is to strive to hasten the job given to me in a transparent cum efficient manner." He immediately shared the details of the next initiative of the treasury department, "Currently more than 650000 pensioners are being serviced by the treasury and in order to address grievances of the retired I have got my mobile phone number displayed in all the 291 offices in the State plus it is found on the departmental web site too. It helps in two ways, people will call me if there is a grievance and will keep calling until it is resolved. Next, it will put a moral pressure on the employees of the department to perform efficiently. Every year the pensioners have been required to physically visit the office where their pension is disbursed in order to get certified that they are alive. This process is called mustering and it happens during the months of summer. One can understand the difficulty of the aged pensioner in this regard and therefore we have now introduced the "Digital Life Certificate" which was introduced by the Narendra Modi Government three years ago. According to this method a pensioner registers his finger print onto a finger print reader available in any of the e-seva centres of the Government of Tamilnadu or can be done through other arrangements too from any part of the world and the same has to be sent through the "Jeevan Praman Portal" which is linked to the Adhaar card data in order to get his biometrics verified in real time. This will therefore be sufficient enough to certify that he or she is alive and this will eventually make the cumbersome muster a thing of the past. The initiative will reduce work in the offices and also the anxieties for the aged pensioners. The first year of its implementation saw about 20 % getting registered under this process and it is expected to reach 50 % during the current year."
The hands of this hard working senior bureaucrat are full due to the simultaneous implementation of all these initiatives and he makes it a point to hold district level meetings with district level officers in front of the Collector. He is crisp and upto the point while talking about the work that needs to be done. He added further by stating an important point, "The work of the treasury can affect the performance of all the departments and even a day of delay can cause enormous anguish to the employees and this will reflect on their performance in a big way. So it becomes incumbent upon me to make sure that all the 4500 people working with the treasury are made to do their best. Hence its required of me to motivate them wholeheartedly by being in touch with them through extensive field visits. Efforts once channelized properly will ensure good delivery."
Tenkasi S.Jawahar has been a go getter from day one and his work in connection with the de-silting of water channels in Nagapattinam making use of the MNREGA scheme is worth recalling for he used to be in the field everyday. "Being in the field adds to our work load for we have to spend additional hours at the office in order to complete the requisite paper work. However every moment is worth the trouble for there is no limit to the joy that unfolds when we see the benefits reaching the grass roots." smiles the committed bureaucrat who displays enormous linguistic proficiency at all times.