Imphal, October 01 2009: The Defence Minister AK Antony has stressed that all men in the Armed Forces must get all their pay arrears relating to the Sixth Central Pay Commission well in time before Diwali.

Addressing the Defence Accounts Day function today at New Delhi, Shri Antony commended the officials of the Controller General of Defence Accounts for adopting computerisation and speeding-up the salary computation systems.

"One of the major challenges before you all is to render prompt, efficient and hassle free pensionary services to nearly 2 million Ex-servicemen and other retired Defence Personnel", Shri Antony said.

The Defence Minister called upon the Defence Accounts officials to implement optimally the austerity measures announced recently by the Government.

"The Prime Minister has underlined the importance of service delivery mechanisms", he added.

Pointing out that the Defence outlay has been growing around 11 per cent per annum over the last few years, Shri Antony called upon the Defence Accounts Department to ensure fair utilisation of the revenue resources and capital spending for the Defence sector.

The Defence Minister later released a vision document for the department.

He applauded the department for its valuable contributions in rationalising and simplifying the complicated processes and procedures in the Defence Procurement Manual - 2009 .

Earlier, the Controller General of Defence Accounts Smt Bulbul Ghosh announced that a pilot project for payment of salaries to all Personnel Below Officer Rank (PBORs) irrespective of their place of posting and location of their drawing branches through e-payment has been successful and it would be implemented shortly across the country.

Speaking on the occasion,the Secretary Defence Finance Smt Indu Liberhan emphasized on the performance audit appraisal system and said though the challenge is daunting, we have to rise to the occasion to fulfil the mandate given to the department.

The Defence Accounts Department (DAD), with its 998 offices spread over 258 locations across the country, handles an annual budget of Rs 1,81,306 crores (2009-10), which accounts for 26% of the total non-plan outlay of the Government of India.

It provides accounting services to the Ministry of Defence, the three Services, and allied organizations like Ordnance Factories, CSD, Military Farms, DRDO, Border Roads Organisation (BRO), Defence Estates, Coast Guard and NCC.

Apart from this, officers from the Indian Defence Accounts Service (IDAS), including lady officers, are deployed with the Indian troops on UN Peacekeeping Missions in various troubled spots of the world where they provide valuable financial management, accounting and payment support.

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