Suspense Management

Lairenlakpam Binod *

The Suspense by ordinary meaning is anxious waiting but in terms of government account its definition and the functional area is very wide and its maintenance is a up hill task to the accounting authorities.

The suspense head is neither a receipt nor a payment head but a temporary shelter for unidentified charges or money received in favour of the government but erroneously booked or as a initial transitory point waiting its transfer to the appropriate head of account or that schedules /vouchers are wanting from state Treasuries etc, which mean the amount booked under this head is for short period. In the government account it is known by a major head 8658-suspense with some defined minor heads under Suspense and Miscellaneous of consolidate fund. The head suspense is operated by various state treasuries, public works departments, State Accountants General and various accounting authorities of central government, Pay & Accounts Offices including Reserve Bank of India

When an item of expenditure or receipt found to be wrongly classified/booked initially , or for want of schedules/vouchers or the items of charges can not be immediately booked due to the nature of its charges or receipts or cheques/Drafts still pending for adjustment or cheques issued in lieu of lost one but found encased or when payment/repayment of central loans to state government or payment of interest there on are made and so on, ( complete description is being narrated in the subsequent paragraphs),the amount of the items are temporarily kept under suspense head pending its final credit/debit in to its exact head of expenditure or receipt or deposit heads as the case may be {normally government receipts are not kept under the suspense head it is avoided as far as possible} .

The pay & Accounts Officers of some ministries/ Departments of central government also operate suspense head to facilitate inter ministries/inter government transactions in addition to the state Treasuries and the Accountants General who hold the accounting responsibilities of concerned state govt. The state public works departments which submit their monthly accounts to the state Accountants General also maintained suspense head known as cash settlement suspense accounts {CSSA} in their books for inter divisions /departmental transactions.

The amounts kept under various minor heads of the major head 8658 suspense are cleared by minus credit or minus debit as mentioned above, per contra credit/debit to the appropriate accounting heads concern before the close of the accounting year and in case clearance could not be done due to insufficient detail of the charges or receipts or the wanting schedules/documents not received or cheques/Drafts not yet issued to clear the settlement of inter ministries /government transfer or advices not yet cleared by clearance memos etc -, the amounts of the items are left outstanding under the suspense head pending clearance in the subsequent month/year.

The income tax deduction made from salary bills and the all India service group insurance scheme deducted from the salary bills or payment made on insurance covered are normally kept under suspense head at the initial stage till the amounts are adjusted.

Some of the minor heads which are commonly operated by state Treasuries, PWD and the Accountants General under the major head 8658-Suspense are as under,-

1, Pay & Accounts Office Suspense

2. Suspense Accounts (civil)

This minor head is sub divided in to detail heads (i) Treasury suspense (ii)Objection book suspense (iii) Un classified suspense (iv)Outstation pay bills for March suspense (v) Cheques cancelled but paid suspense (vi) Accounts with Accountants General (vii) House building Advances suspense (viii) Motor conveyance advances suspense (ix) NDF Suspense

{i} it is operated for provisional accommodation of difference noted between figures incorporated in the Treasury LOP/Cash accounts and the corresponding schedules of payments/receipts accompanying there to. The amounts initially kept under this head is cleared when difference are settled on receipts of necessary clarifications/wanting schedules along with supporting vouchers etc from the Treasury Officers by taking the amounts to the head of account concerned.

{ii} it is operated when treasury schedules received but its supporting vouchers are wanting, the amount of the vouchers are placed under this suspense minor head. When wanting vouchers are received from the concerned Treasuries this minor head is cleared by minus entries per contra debit to the head of account concerned.

{iii} it is maintained for provisional entries of items received through inward accounts received from different Accountants General /Pay & Accounts officers through inward settlement accounts for which full particular of vouchers are wanting.

{iv} it is maintained for initial record of expenditure of outstation pay and allowance etc for the month of march which is to be adjusted against the final head of account in the month of April as the every financial year is from April.. Such debit made is required to be cleared by affording minus debits.

{v} it is maintained to record of fresh cheque issued in lieu of cancelled/lost but found to have been encased in the same month. This head is cleared when amount of the cheque is recovered or written off.

{vii}&{vii} This minor head is operated for adjusting the missing credits/debits of HBA/MCA advances of state government employees on collateral evidence basis

{viii} initial record of NDF collection made from salary bills are appeared under this head and is cleared by issue of cheque/drafts in favour of RBI.

3. Cash settlement suspense Accounts

4. Reserve bank suspense (HQ)

5. Reserve bank suspense (CAO)

6. Departmental adjusting Accounts suspense

7. Tax deducted at source suspense

8. Provident fund suspense

9. All India service officers GIS Suspense

The amount placed under PAO suspense is cleared by minus debit or minus credit as the case may be. The cash settlement suspense account is operated for record of settlement or transactions between public works divisions rendering monthly accounts to the state Accountants General. This suspense head is initially arising in the books of a PWD as a transitory head for service rendered or supplies made to another public work division(s) till it is cleared by cash remittance or otherwise between the divisions.

The public sector bank suspense is operated by PAO which are banking with public sector banks, the amounts of cheques issued by the concerned PAO and cheque drawing DDOs in account with PAO paid by the accredited bank will be credited to this minor head by affording per contra minus credit to 8670 Cheques and Bills etc.

Reserve Bank Suspense {HQ} is operated by the state Accountants General in their state section of account in connection with credits and debits appearing in Bank scrolls on account of cash settlements of inward accounts received on account of inter government transactions pending adjustment of the account received from the other party. The amount so adjusted will be cleared by minus debit or minus credit as the case may be.

The Reserve Bank suspense CAO {central accounts office} is operated by the principal Accounts office as well as by the state Accountant s General. The former office is to credit the advices to the Reserve Bank of India {CAO} Nagpur, to effect transfer from the balance of the central government to that of the state government in connection with payment of central loans central grant in aids, share of Income tax, excise duty etc while the later office mentioned above issue advices to the Reserve Bank of India central account section Nagpur for debit to the state government account per contra credit to the central government on account of repayment of loans and payment of interest there on. At the time of advice, debits are made to the relevant state head of account per contra credit to this suspense head.

On receipt of clearance memos from the Reserve Bank of India the Principal Accounts office clear this suspense head by minus debit per contra credit to the head 8675 Deposit with Reserve Bank central civil, while the state Accountants General clear this suspense minor head by means of minus credit per contra credit to 8675 Deposit with Reserve Bank {CAS}. All these operations are done by means of Transfer entries.

The Departmental Adjusting Accounts suspense {DAA} is operated for provisional adjustment of departmental receipts and payments which are appeared in the state Treasuries .The amount so adjusted under this minor head are cleared by minus credit and minus debit afforded through the classified abstract in which the monthly transaction are finally brought to accounts.

In my last two and half decade long service as officer of which one and half decade at senior level, I had come across many incidents pertaining to the suspense heads management. Higher level authorities wanted, nil balance, if not, at significant minimum level, of all kinds of suspense heads before the close of accounting year to beautify the annual state accounts, but as I have experienced, bringing down of balances to nil balance under certain minor heads were very difficult.

The balances in many suspense minor heads increased many fold rather than diminish at the yearend despite at best efforts to clear while significant decreased in figures under some other minor heads were there, The reason behind increase rather than diminish under certain minor heads for example, objection book .suspense under the minor head suspense account (civil), that vouchers/schedules are still more wanting from Treasury Officers or that of unclassified suspense because settlement of inward accounts from various PAO offices are still awaiting etc ,for which adjustment could not be made before the close of the accounting year The suspense head is always a big burden in every accounting offices and it made the annual ac- counts in ugliest mode yet it is necessary to maintain it because actual figures under various receipts and expenditure heads need to be reflected exactly what the state government spent or received through their state treasuries or transactions occurred in public work departments including various PAOs. So far my knowledge is concerned , there is no accounting office which do not maintain suspense heads in their accounts.

As regard suspense operated by the Accountants General most of them are originated from state Treasuries, through their monthly cash accounts and list of payments {LOP} ,which hold all financial transactions of their respective state government and the state public work departments which submit their monthly divisional accounts to the Accountant General but they are not responsible to clearance. The responsible is rest with the state Accountants General who compiles state accounts and prepares the annual finance & appropriation accounts of their respective state government. So proper management of suspense is rest with the accounting authorities.

I had also come across few incidents where erroneous entries in to suspense head were made due to insufficient knowledge or due to book keeping errors and continued its stand by balance year by year without clearance as it can not be cleared/ adjusted if entries are made in such way unless it is writ- ten off from the balance head completely because there are no accounting sources where from the adjustment is to be done. The word written off is easy to spell but in government accounts it is not a easy task, it requires lot of long process of sanction and requisite approval of higher authorities as required under Rules and must be justified its initial wrong entries.

As I know from my experience, dealt with, many employees have little knowledge about suspense management; they have lack of proper training on the subject. It is, therefore, training of staffs at regular interval is strongly recommended be- cause once entries made in to the suspense heads erroneously and monthly accounts closed without rectification, it remained un adjustable in the book of accounts until it is written off in accordance with Para 53 of Account code volm-I . The Para 53 of Account code volm-1 is also applicable in the case of out- standing balances of irrecoverable government dues as loss to government but require the sanction of concerned government.