Technical glitch halts salaries of teachers, employees of universities in Bihar

Thousands of teachers and employees including those retired, are yet to receive their salaries since October-November last year due to a technical snag, officials said.

A senior official of the department of education said that the salary up to December had been released around 15 days ago, but due to a snag in Comprehensive Financial Management System (CFMS 2.O) system, governed by the state’s finance department, money could not be processed.

“The problem in the CFMS has affected not just university employees, but others across the government departments and efforts are underway to get it right. Hopefully, the varsity employees and teachers as also pensioners should get salary up to December in 3-4 days,” he added.

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On Monday, the chief secretary held a review meeting in which the finance department officials apprised him about the glitch that had been been resolved and the payment was getting through, and officials of the various departments were also being trained in this regard.

CFMS 2.O is an upgraded version of CFMS, which was introduced in the state in April 2019 in place of Comprehensive Treasury Management Information System (CTMIS).

CFMS 2.O has been introduced to manage all financial activities of the government from a single, central platform and through the digital process, with a robust validation engine to avoid duplication and ensure effective monitoring.

“The education department has made it clear time and again that the universities must upload all data about employees and pensioners on its payroll management portal, but that has not been completed as yet, despite repeated reminders. The department has still been releasing salary relaxing the norms, but the order stands,” said the department official.

The Federation of Universities Teachers’ Associations of Bihar (FUTAB) has expressed its disappointment over the delays.

“If the data required for the portal is taking longer, there is no justification of holding salary of all. When the universities are functioning at half the sanctioned strength, the department is unable to ensure timely release of salary. I have been raising the matter in the House also. One can understand the CFMS issue, but delaying release of salary to pensioners, university teachers and staff has developed a pattern,” said FUTAB general secretary Sanjay Kumar Singh, MLC.

FUTAB working President Kanhaiya Bahadur Sinha said that the department should hold the university authorities accountable for non-compliance, not penalise all pensioners, teachers and employees.