Date:30/05/2006 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/05/30/stories/2006053003300700.htm

Back 3 zonal Rlys faulted for sub-optimal use of computerised application

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Uniform online payment and accounting system implementation

New Delhi , May 29

A report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) pertaining to Pay Roll and Independent Modules (PRIME) application developed by Indian Railways has revealed that partial implementation of the computerised application by the Southern, South Eastern and Western Railways resulted in its sub-optimal utilisation.

"IT audit of PRIME, to the extent implemented by three Zonal Railways, revealed several significant deficiencies as nine of the 18 sub-modules developed were not put to use leading to sub-optimal utilisation of the application," the CAG report said.

Indian Railways developed PRIME as a part of the scheme of Railway Board to implement uniform online payment and accounting system over all zonal Railways.

The computerised application was designed to serve as a decision support system for human resource management and to maintain all career events of employees apart from generating different types of establishment bills and monitoring recoveries from employees.

The CAG report for the year ended March 2005 noted that Southern Railway was not fully equipped for implementation of the application and consequently accepted the software even though nine out of 18 sub-modules had not been implemented.

Southern Railway

While Southern Railway incurred avoidable cost of Rs 2.70 crore on duplication of network facilities and operation management cost, retention of excess manpower at EDP Centre, Chennai, in spite of reduction in workload resulted in an extra expenditure of Rs 2.41 crore for the period October 2001 to March 2005. Evaluation of IT Governance in Eastern Railway with reference to implementation of PRIME and Advanced Financial and Railway Expenditure Management System (AFRES) revealed delays in acquisition of infrastructure, resulting in a time overrun of three years and cost overrun of Rs 1.63 crore.

Kolkata Metro

The report also said that Transaction Accounting System (TAS) implemented by Metro Railway Kolkata in October 2001 for on line accounting of transactions, was found to be deficient both in applications and general controls.

IT audit of the computerised material management and inventory management systems in Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala (RCF), Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW) and Western Railway (WR) disclosed "significant deficiencies". "The systems developed in RCF and CLW were not capturing vital data requiring manual interventions. The general controls encompassing disaster management, access controls, change management controls and segregation of functions were inadequate," it said.