Minutes of the Meeting held on 24.01.2019 - CPAO with all Heads of CPPCs of SBI

Minutes of the meeting held on 24.01.2019 with all the Heads of CPPCs/ Government Business Divisions of State Bank of India (SBI) to discuss the payment of revised pension and arrears under 7th CPC and other pension related issues.

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
DEPARTMENT OF EXPENDITURE
MINISTRY OF FINANCE
CENTRAL PENSION ACCOUNTING OFFICE
TRIKOOT-II, BHIKAJI CAMA PLACE,
NEW Delhi-110066
PHONES :26174596, 26174456, 26174438

CPAO/IT &Tech/Master data/14 (Vol-III)/2018-19/226

28.02.2019

Minutes of the Meeting

Kindly find enclosed the Minutes of the Meeting held on 24.01.2019 at 11:00 AM at Conference Hall of Central Pension Accounting Office (CPAO) with all Heads of CPPCs/ Government Business Divisions of State Bank of India to review the implementation of 7th CPC pension revision and to discuss other issues under the Chairmanship of Chief Controller (Pensions) for information and further necessary action.

Sr. Accounts Officer (IT & Tech)

Minutes of the meeting held on 24.01.2019 with all the Heads of CPPCs/ Government Business Divisions of State Bank of India (SBI) to discuss various issues.

A Meeting was held on 24.01.2019 under the Chairmanship of Chief Controller (Pensions) with the representatives of Heads of CPPCs/ Government Business Divisions of State Bank of India (SBI) to discuss the timely payment of revised pension and arrears under 7th CPC and other pension related issues. At the outset, Asstt. Controller of Accounts (ACA) welcomed all the participants and emphasized on the need of timely payment of revised pension and arrears in the accounts of the pensioners by the banks. After that agenda items of the meeting were discussed in detail and following decisions were taken.

List of participants is attached at Annexure.

Agenda Item No. 1- Implementation of 7th CPC Pension Revision and its reporting by Banks

It has been observed from the reports as on 21st Jan, 2019 that there are delays in crediting the revised pensions as well as arrears of pensions/family pensions by the banks. As per the reports, there are many cases which are pending for more than 31 days. Bank wise details of the pending cases was handed over to all the representatives of the concerned banks. But most of the banks reported that in some cases they had already revised and credited pension to the pensioner /family pensioner accounts. It was decided that all the CPPCs would reconcile the status of revised pension cases provided to them by 1st March. 2019.

{Action: SBI CPPCs/ NIC CPAO)

Agenda Item No. 2 – IT related issue w.r.t. e-Revision and fresh Pension cases

Acknowledgement of SSA

SBI is requested to ensure forwarding the acknowledgement of SSA electronically to CPAO at the earliest so that the difference between SSA forwarded by the CPAO and SSA received by the Bank could be nullified. Bank was also provided the format for Acknowledgement.

(Action: SBI/ NIC CPAO)

Development of e-PPO Booklet

Earlier, CPAO shared the format of electronic PPO booklet for making necessary changes in the pension processing software of banks for consuming the electronic PPO booklet with banks. All banks were instructed to make necessary changes in their software in the meeting held on 31st Jan, 2018 and 27th June, 2018. Copy of format of e-PPO with sample e-PPO,files has been e-mailed to all the Banks. SBI is requested to take necessary action.

(Action : SBI CPPC)

Agenda Item No. 3- Compliance of Internal Audit observations on 7th CPC revisions.

It has been observed that clear and complete compliance reports are not being submitted by the CPPCs. The CPPCs were requested to give full details of the objection raised by Internal Audit Wing in their compliance reports so that the same could be verified and settled. Internal control in Bank to be improved and strengthened so that errors should not take place.

(Action: SBI CPPCs & IAW (CPAO))

Agenda Item No. 4- Timely commencement of family pension, additional pension & restoration of commuted portion of pension by banks

It has been observed that family pension, additional pension and commuted portion are not timely commenced/restored . Since these issues are regularly discussed in the various meetings i.e. SCOVA Meeting, High Level Meeting, Standing Committee Meeting, etc. All the CPPCs need to commence this timely to mitigate the grievances.

(Action: SBI CPPCs)

Agenda Item No. 5- Timely submission of Life Certificates-

CPAO is responsible for the disbursement of death/disability pension under NPS Additional Relief. First time identification of the pensioners is being done by the Bank branches based on the KYC details available with the Banks where the pensioners/ family pensioners have opened their pension accounts. CPAO starts the pension payment based on the first time identification report received from Banks. Also these banks branches are responsible for sending the life certificates of the pensioners/family pensioners to CPAO for the continuation of pension to NPS-AR pensioners, in the month of November as CPAO is the disbursing authority under NPS-AR cases. However, it is noticed that in many cases, despite submission of life certificates by the pensioners, bank branches have not forwarded the same to CPAO. Bank for advised to ensure that these reports /certificates are furnish to CPAO in time so that pensioners are not put under any financial hardship.

Keeping in view the hardship being faced by the family pensioner s, concerned SBI was advised to send the outstanding life certificates to CPAO without any further delay.

(Action: SBI CPPCs & NPS Section)

Agenda item No.6 – Return of Old PPO by the Banks.

Allotment of 12 digits PPO Number

It has been observed that the 12 digit PPO number has not been obtained by the banks in respect of 4951 pensioners from the CPAO and still incorporating the old alpha numeric cod e in the payment scroll. Bank wise details are also provided to them. Banks were requested to obtain the 12 digit PPO number from CPAO so that pensioners could avail the facility provided by the CPAO viz lodging grievances, know their PPO status and also check their payment details due to non allotment of 12 digit numeric PPO number.

Return of Inactive PPOs.

Pension Payment orders which are not in operation / inactive may be returned to CPAO for deletion from the CPAO database. It is noticed from the database of CPAO that the old PPO which are inactive are not being forwarded by the bank to the CPAO.

(Action: SBI CPPCs)

Agenda Item No. 7- Submission of e-scrolls and Master Data Reconciliation

Submission of e-scrolls

It has been observed that there is no improvement in submission of e-scrolls by CPPCs. The bank wise details were also provided to the banks. Banks should ensure that e-scrolls are updated on a daily basis to CPAO after matching it thoroughly with the pension payments made. The Banks should further ensure that the date of scroll should match with date of transaction appeared in the put through statement issued by RBI.

(Action: SBI CPPCs)

Master Data Reconciliation

It has been observed that there is inordinate delay in uploading of Master Data by the banks. For updating on Master Data at CPAO level, it is required that whenever any value in the pension of a pensioner/family pensioner is changed the same is reported by the bank through Format-F of e-Scroll. However, it is noticed that banks are not providing the changed information to the CPAO. All the banks were instructed for reconciliation of Master Data and submission of changed information in Format-F on “quarterly” basis instead of on “annual” basis. It was also decided to nominate one Nodal Officer by each CPPCs of all authorized banks and CPAO as well.

(Action: SBI CPPCs and NIC)

Agenda Item No. 8- Any other point with permission of the chair

a) Grievances:-

Under Grievances module of WRPS, up to 18th Jan, 2019; 6040 grievances have been disposed of through WRPS and 1098 grievances are pending with CPPCs of State Bank of India. Out of these pending grievances, 1 grievance IS pending for more than 90 days which is a cause of concern. Banks are requested to ensure that all the grievances are disposed of which are pending with them within one month and update the same on the WRPS portal so that pensioners are informed accordingly.

(Action: SBI CPPCs/(NIC) CPAO /Grievance Cell)

b) Officials from PCDA, Allahabad, Deptt. of Telecommunication (DOT) and Deptt of Post were also invited as per Meeting Notice vide CPAO/IT &Tech/Master data/14 (Vol JU)/2018-19/184 . Their .issues are follows:-

i) Defence Accounts:-

a) SBI was suggested to develop a mechanism for acknowledgement of e-PPOs.

b) It has been observed from the e-scrolls received in the O/o PCDA that some of the CPPCs are crediting pension and Family pension very late in the account of pensioner. CPPCs were requested to improve their performance and credit the pension/family pension on time.

c) All the CPPCs are requested in the meeting to provide PPO image to them to facilitate data purification.

d) It was also pointed out that SBI Hyderabad is receiving cases which pertain to SBI Amravati.

e) All the CPPCs of SBI were requested to attend the meeting as and when it is convened by the PCDA.

(Action : SBI CPPCs)

ii) Department of Telecommunication: –

a) Outstanding amount of excess / overpayment made by the banks to the pensioners are not recovered by the banks.

b) Pension Payment orders which are not in operation / inactive may be returned for deletion from the database.

c) Banks were advised to ensure that there should not be any delay in timely payment of Pension/ Family Pension.

d) SBI CPPCs were advised to reconcile the data and credit the payment of revision of pension to the pensioners as per 7th CPC.

(Action : SBI CPPCs)

iii) Ministry of Railways

a) It was pointed out in the meeting that the CPPCs are not submitting the E-scroll in time. Banks has been requested to reconcile the data at the earliest.

b) All the CPPCs are suggested to develop a mechanism for acknowledgement of e-PPOs.

(Action : SBI CPPCs)

Reconciliation of Suspense Balance:-

Reconciliation of suspense account have been a major issue. Generally, payment scrolls are to be submitted on next day of payment to CPAO. But the payment scrolls are not submitted by the banks on time. Some banks reported that scrolls are shown successful but there are not recorded on CPAO’s website. NIC, CPAO is to look into the matter to solve the issue. CPPCs are requested to clear the suspense balance at the earliest.

(Action : SBI CPPCs)

The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the chair.

List of Participants

CPAO:

1. Sh. Davinder Kumar, Sr. TD (NIC), CPAO
2. Md. Shahid Kamal Ansari, ACA, CPAO
3. Sh. P.K Sapra, Sr. AO, RBD
4. Sh. Praful Dabral, Sr. AO, IT&Tech
5. Sh. Khushal Singh Rawat, AAO, Coordi nation
6. Sh. M.M.Kaushik, Consultant, Grievance Cell
7. Sh. Jagjit Singh, DBA, CPAO
8. Sh. Milind Krishna, Sr. Software Developer, CPAO

Ministry of Defence:

1. Sh. Himanshu Tripathi , Assistant Controller of Accounts
2. Sh. Dhritiman Bhattacharya, AAO, PCDA (P), Allahabad

Deptt. of Tel ecommunication

1. Sh. B.R Sreenivasa, Dy. Controller , DOT
2. Sh. G. Baska ran, Director (AG)

Ministry of Railways
1. Sh. G. Kabui, Chief Controller of Accounts
2. Sh. Utpal Majumdar, Sr. AO

SBI CPPCs;
1. Sh. Venugopal P , Manager, Chennai
2. Sh. Pronob Kumar Sarkar, AGM, Kolkata
3. Sh. Sushanta Kumar Ghosh , CM (system)
4. Sh. Oeba Ranjan Mishra, AGM , Bhubaneshwar
S. Sh. Ra mesh Chandra, Manager, Bhuba neshwar
6. Sh. Basand Gupta. CM, GAD
7. Sh. Pard eep Gupta
8. Sh. O.P Ahuja
9. Sh. Manoj Varma, AG M
10. Sh. Aji t Kumar Verma
11. Sh. Virendra Singh
12. Sh. C.P Vashistha, AGM
13. Sh. K Srinivas Rao, AGM
14. Sh. Nagesh , AGM
15. Sh. Suja Jacob
16. Sh. K R Prakash
17. Sh. Niranjan Kr Panday
18. Sh. Sanjay Kr.
19. Sh. Utpal Majumdar
20.Sh. G. Baskaran
21. Sh. Ananta Sahu, AGM
22. Sh. Ganesh Kumar Tiwari, AGM, Mumbai
23. Ah. Amresh Kr. Mishra
24. Sh. Rakesh K Garg
25. Sh. Vinod Sharma
26. Sh. S. S Shakya