Naeem Akhtar welcomes empowerment of engineers

JAMMU, MAY 21: Continuing with the systemic reforms to bring transparency and efficacy in the administration, Minister for Public Works and Culture, Naeem Akhtar, today said the latest amendments in the ‘Book of Financial Powers’ will empower the officers to speed up implementation of developmental projects in the state.
“These amendments will go a long way in not only bringing accountability and transparency in administration but will also empower officers to execute various developmental projects that may have suffered due to paucity of approved funds,” the Works Minister said.
As per the amendments in the Book of Financial Powers issued vide Government Order No: 46-F of 2018 dated: 16.05.2018, the limit of funds under ‘Accord of Technical Sanction’ for a Superintending Engineer ranked officer has been raised from existing Rs 50 lakhs to Rs 1 crore.
Similarly, for Executive Engineer ranked officer, the limit has been raised from the prevailing Rs 10 lakhs to Rs 40 lakhs. For Assistant Executive Engineer ranked officer, the limit has been raised from Rs 50000 to Rs 1 lakh.
Under ‘Accord of Administrative Approval’, a Chief Engineer ranked officer’s limit has been raised from Rs 4 crore to Rs 10 crore. For Superintending Engineer, the limit has been raised from Rs 1.5 crore to Rs 3 crore.
Under ‘Execution of Agreements’, for Superintending Engineer, the limit has been raised from Rs 40 lakh to Rs 5 crore while as for Executive Engineer, the limit has been raised from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 1 crore, according to the order issued by the state government.
Similarly, under ‘Award of Contracts’, the limit for Departmental Contract Committee has been raised from Rs 20 crores to Rs 40 crores. For Chief Engineer, the limit has been raised from Rs 10 crore to Rs 26 crore while the figure has gone up from Rs 5 crores for Superintending Engineer to Rs 7 crores.
The order states that the limit has been capped from the prevailing Rs 1 crore for Executive Engineer at Rs 1.5 crores. “Consequent upon the revision of Financial Powers as above, the powers delegated to Administrative Departments to Accord Administrative Approval in terms of Chapter 4.9 against S No.01 shall be revised separately,” the order reads.