Ashraya/Suvigya vs SPARSH - Similarities
Prologue
As per O/o CGDA reply No. PENS-5702/2/2022-PEN/RTI dated 28.08.2023, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) was contracted to implement SPARSH at a cost of Rs 160.22 crore of which Rs 95.76 crore has already been paid.
Inspite of the headline on the TCS website stating “CGDA Launches SPARSH Platform to Ensure Timely Pension Disbursements” on https://www.tcs.com/what-we-do/industries/public-services/case-study/cgda-sparsh-program-digitalizes-pension-sanction-process & unable to send a message on https://www.tcs.com/contact-us/whats-on-your-mind/website-feedback-form
It is understood that the problems are because many pensioners were migrated (in haste?) on an ‘as is where is basis’ with just basic service data and pay data used for migrating a pensioner to SPARSH. So they are unable to access the PPO/Corr PPO after receiving text messages to login and see PPO/Corr PPO or receive a “Record is discrepant, mandatory data is missing…”
So What is different or is it the same Pension Disbursement scheme with Banks out of the scheme and Problems into the scheme?
Please read on
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Defence Accounts Department scheme Aashraya/Suvigya inaugurated in 2010 |
Defence Accounts Department scheme SPARSH approved in 2017 |
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. Aashraya and Suvigya are/were established pension disbursement systems implemented by Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA) and are now sought to be replaced at considerable additional and avoidable expenditure. The blurb below is from the official website of CGDA and is available in the public domain (https://cgda.nic.in/index.php?page=aashryaN): - Background “Defence Accounts Department is responsible for sanction and disbursement of Defence Pension to retired Service Officers, JCOs and ORs, Defence Civilians and their families. Efficient Disbursement of Pension to the Defence Pensioners is of primmest concern to the Defence Accounts Department. The Defence Pension budget constitutes approximately 62% of total pension budget of Central Govt. Pension is sanctioned to approximately one lac retirees each year by three Pension Sanctioning Authorities of the Department and is disbursed monthly to approximately 23.5 Lacs pensioners out of which nearly 5 Lacs receive their pension through 61 Defence Pension Disbursement Offices (DPDOs) spread across the country. With increased life expectancy and a dependency ratio of over 100% for defence pension it is imperative to ensure that correct pension is paid to the pensioners as the quantum of pension and its regularity impacts over 2 million defence personnel. Given the huge amount of expenditure incurred by the Govt. towards its pension liability and a large no. of people being its beneficiaries, it is absolutely necessary to have a pensioner friendly, efficient and a transparent Pension Disbursement System and Pension Enquiry System. Accordingly the project “Aashraya: Pension Disbursement System” and “Suvigya: Pension Enquiry System” were launched in Jun-2010. These were developed and inaugurated by Hon’ble Raksha Mantri on DAD Day i.e. Oct 1, 2010. Aashraya The Concept The Defence Pension Disbursement offices were running on COBOL Based Pension Disbursement System called RNPDS. This was an outdated system with very limited utility and required programming skills for its operations for every transaction. Hence, it was not user friendly and required COBOL programming skills for operation. It had a limited facility to generate Pension Schedule of Pensioners. There was no role based operation. The MIS generation and audit was not possible. The Staff and officer of the DPDO were dependent on the programmers of the COBOL to operate it for settling any grievance. With change in pension entitlements like Dearness Relief, Allowances etc the payment of correct entitlements and arrears were a tedious job. In view of above situation, the Defence Accounts Department conceived the idea of making an efficient Pension Disbursement System (i.e. Project “Aashraya”) for making the correct payment of pension and addressing grievances of the pensioners while automating the most of the manual work of DPDOs. Accordingly the Project “Aashraya” was initiated. This software was developed by using open source platform i.e. PHP/ MySQL and runs on Linux/Windows etc. It has been designed, developed and implemented by in-house team of officers without third party assistance and expenditure on this account. It has following salient features: · Transparency and stakeholder participation: “Aashraya” software is very user friendly with role based authentications. Pensioner’s profile module in the system enables DPDO staff to view the complete profile of a pensioner by entering the ID of pensioner and payment history for the purpose of redressal of grievances. In earlier system the information could only fetched by writing COBOL program on every case and was dependent on availability of one technical person in DPDO office. Now, “Aashraya” has made available the pensioner’s information with every staff and officer of DPDO for faster redressal of grievances if any or otherwise with least manual effort. Innovativeness of the initiative and its replicability: ‘Aashraya’ has automated the disbursement of pension to 5 lac pensioners from 61 Defence Pension Disbursement (DPDO) offices across the country. It can be customised for the use of any pension disbursement agency (Post office, civil treasury, bank etc.) The Software is: i. Intuitive, normal office staff without much computer knowledge can work on it. ii. Web-enabled, can be run at dispersed locations across the country. iii. Inexpensive, based on freeware platforms and developed in-house and needs minimal outstation resources. iv. Comprehensive, covers all main activities of a pension disbursement office and v. Green saves lot of printing effort and paper. A modified PDCA (plan-do-check-act) iterative cycle was used at all stages for the development. The difference was that the users (Non-EDP taskholders/supervisors) themselves were the problem-solvers, equal participants in the cycle. They concurrently did the data input and suggested further screen improvements that the programmers readily implemented. By the time the system was fully evolved, the users developed an ownership stake and their enthusiastic participation led to an implementation momentum that crashed all timelines. The result is there for all to see. Increased efficiency of outputs/processes and effectiveness of outcomes: This software has increased many folds the working efficiency of DPDOs staff as working on new system is very user friendly and faster. The process which took many hours now takes few minutes to finish. I. Web Enabled User Friendly Operations: “Aashraya” is web enabled software with user friendly interface screens and navigation. Any non-technical person in DPDO can easily operate it. The operations of DPDO like generation of Pension Payment Schedule of Pensioners, MIS, Common reports and returns etc could be generated on click of button without programming knowledge II. In-Built Help: There is in-built help for operation of every screen. There is no need for officers and staff to wait and depend on the COBOL programmer to process any transaction. III. Pensioners’ Profile: the module “Pensioners’ Profile” gives information regarding pensioners, pension related matters and entitlements being paid. These can be fetched easily by staff and officers of DPDO for attending the grievances and its quick settlement. This has resolved the problem of earlier system where it was not feasible for staff and officers to do so. IV. Role Based Operations: In “Aashraya” the functioning of DPDO has been made role based for various tasks and ranks as per procedures. This has induced accountability for various tasks at various ranks. Respective operators of “Aashraya” can print the record of the transactions done by them. The administrator can track the person carrying out the transaction. This has resolved the problem of single point data entry and operations by the COBOL programmer on behalf of other staff in earlier COBOL based system. The staff had responsibility without record and direct access to what had been done on their behalf. V. In-Built Audit Checks: Common Audit Checks have been built into “Aashraya” to ensure accurate data entry and output results. These checks were not there in old system generally leading to output with lesser accuracy. Further, the manual checking of payment schedule as audit requirement in earlier system was time consuming. The “Aashraya” automatically compares the schedules of desired months. VI. History of payments: “Aashraya” has facility to maintain the history of pension disbursement for longer periods to facilitate quick payment of arrears in the event of change of entitlements by Government and for settlement of a grievance etc. The earlier system could maintain the history of payments of pension only up to 15 months and calculation of arrears in case of change of entitlements etc was tedious manual task. VII. Monthly Pension Slip to Pensioners through E-MAIL and SMS: “Aashraya” contains the facility for sending monthly pension slip of the pensioners to their e-mail and also on their mobile through SMS. The DPDO has to just press the button once for it. In nut-shell, the “Aashraya” has automated the operations in DPDOs in a user friendly manner, ensured accuracy by audit checks, minimised grievances and quicken the settlement of existing grievances thereby enhancing the overall efficiency of DPDOs. VIII. Date of implementation of the initiative: This project was formally inaugurated by Hon’ble Raksha Mantri Sh. A K Antony on DAD Day on Oct 1, 2010 and the completely implemented by March 2011 in 61 DPDOs. Now it is running in all 63 DPDOs. Suvigya Armed Forces Personnel generally retire at an early age. The pension structure compensates them for early retirement and also for acts of bravery, strain of active service and so, is very different from civil pension system. Pay Commissions and other Authorities constantly keep improving their entitlements. Hence, Defence Service Pensions are far more complex. At present, pension is being disbursed to pensioners by Defence Pension Disbursement Offices, banks, State Government Treasuries and Post Offices. They also carry out table based pension revision. While the DPDO understands the technicalities of pension, being part of DAD, other agencies, especially bank branches have limitations. Our experience at the Pension Adalats has been that most of the issues in pension arise at the bank level. In this back drop project SUVIGYA is a total in-house designed and developed Pension enquiry System, was taken up in July, 2010 with a view to empower the pensioners to know what their correct entitlement of pension is from time to time. It is a web-technique based system. The system requires very few basic inputs from the pensioner. Once data is entered software calculates the pension and changes to it from time to time. Pensioner can get a print out of inputs provided by him and of the outputs generated by the system. If a pensioner finds his/her pension actually paid or being paid is less then the results given by the system, he/she can take up the matter with the Pension Sanctioning Authority or Pension Disbursing Agencies for rectification. To the best of our knowledge, no other Government department has so far established such a comprehensive and interactive Pension Enquiry System. We have provided e-kiosks at various DAD and Service secured locations accessible to the pensioners. For computer-shy pensioners, we have trained the concerned officials of DAD, Zila Sainik Boards and other offices where e-kiosks have been provided” (emphasis supplied).
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Controller General of Defence Accounts Ulan Batar Road, Palam Delhi Cantt – 110010
IT & S WING Subject: Statement of Case for CPP Project for approvals from the Ministry Kindly refer to the budget speech of the Hon’ble Finance Minister which announced the creation of web based interactive pension distribution system for defence pensioners which would receive pension proposals and make payment centrally and the directives given in the meeting held in this regard on 15.3.2017 and chaired by FA (DS).
2. The consultancy awarded by the department towards realisation of CPP project to NISG has progressed to the stage of finalisation of Draft RFP. The Draft RFP submitted is under examination by the department. 3. The following documents are annexed for necessary approvals and budget commitments from the ministry: (a) A Statement of Case duly including project components, timelines, implementation road map and financial projections. (b) The Detailed Project Report submitted by NISG for information and perusal. 4. The ministry is requested to accord necessary approvals and budget commitments for the project based on the above documentation. 5. The RFP will be floated after accordance of necessary approvals by the ministry as above. This issues with the approval of CGDA. Sd/---------- V K Vijay JT CGDA (IT&S) Shri A N Das, JS & Addl FA MoD (Fin) U.O. No. MECH/IT/CPP/NISG III dated 23.03.2017
Copy to: Shri Ravi Kant, JS (ESW) : for information and necessary action Sd/----- V K Vijay Jt CDGA (IT &S)
Statement of Case for Centralised Pension Package
1. Background The Defence pension is an area of significance in the Indian socio-economic scenarios as it caters to the largest segment of the country’s pensioners both in terms of numbers as well as in terms of the budget allocation. There are approximately 25 lakh Defence pensioners (including the civilian pensioners) in India and Defence pension caters for approximately 45% of the total pension budget of the government of India. 70000 pensioners are added every year to the pension domain. The Defence Accounts Department (DAD) administers the Defence pension on behalf of the Ministry of Defence. The department is assisted by various other stakeholders in its disbursement functions while the sanction, accounting and audit procedures are handled within the department. While the multi organisation setup was the need of the yesteryears to realise last mile connectivity with the pensioner, it brought along gaps in accounting, budgeting and reporting in pension processes. The variance in the treatment of revision of pension by the various disbursing agencies also resulted in increased grievances and dissatisfaction amongst the pensioners. With a view to mitigate the above limitations and leverage the use of technological advances in the IT domain, the department proposed a model for centralised disbursement in April 2015. This model was given an in-principle approval by the ministry. However, the proposal did not materialise owing to resource constraints. To overcome the existing constraints and to ensure a more holistic and all-encompassing solution to Defence pension administration the department has conceptualised a comprehensive pension package which would handle all processes from pension initiation, sanction, disbursement, revision, accounting, budgeting and audit. This comprehensive concept also caters for information dissemination and grievance redressal. As the first step towards realisation of the concept the department has engaged NISG in 2016 as a consultant to study the existing process and suggest a suitable technology platform for integrated service delivery. NISG after detailed analysis of business processes and engagement with various stakeholders have proposed a model for the development of a comprehensive package envisaging a centralised platform for integration and delivery of pension related services through a system integrator. 2. The Project Proposal 2.1. The Concept The paradigm for the centralised pension package as recommended by NISG and accepted by the department envisages a centralised pension administration environment to be developed through outsourcing. The solution would be placed on two distinct and separated networks – the intranet of the department and the internet. The intranet component would host the core pension process, while the internet component will provide the information dissemination, service delivery and grievance redressal. This system envisages digital transmission of data thereby minimising transit delays and ensuring faster processing, timely disbursement and accurate accounting procedures. The system also envisages a revision module which would ensure uniform and timely revision of pension to all beneficiaries. 2.1.1. Benefits The major benefits that would accrue from the centralisation of pension related activities as envisaged through the project are summarised below: 1. Correct pension fixation and revision 2. Improved G2C services to the pensioners in e-Gov environment 3. Consolidated reliable database of Pensioners records, change history, transaction, etc 4. Data integrity 5. Self-services based delivery model 6. Expending Services Centres resulting in higher satisfaction & less grievances 7. Reduction in total number of Grievances 8. Significant reduction in turnaround times 9. Anywhere/Anytime information access to the stakeholders & pensioners 10. System based Data Analytics shall help to further enhance Processes 2.2. Components The CPP project has three distinct components 1. The Centralised Pension Package software 2. Setting up of Data Centres 3. Digitisation of legacy records The project is envisaged to be completed over a period of 3 years with major deliverables i.e. CPP software and Data Centres of the project being realised in the first year of the project. 2.2.1. Comprehensive Pension Package Software This involves the development of the software component of the project which includes development of i. E forms – for the individual to apply for his pension ii. Record Offices/HOOs Module – for verification & processing of e-forms & upload to CPP software iii. Pay Accounts Office Module – for entering the pay related information of the prospective pensioner iv. Claim tracking module – to track the status of the pension claim v. Pension Sanction Module – for the sanction of pensions vi. Revision Module – for uniform pension revisions vii. Disbursement Module – for centralised pension disbursement viii. Service centre module – for service centres ix. Accounting and Budgeting module – for reconciliation compilation and budget preparation x. Data migration module – for migration of data relating to legacy pensioners xi. Web interface/Mobile interface for information dissemination The functional requirements in this regard has already been formulated and vetted by the department. This forms the major component of the project and is estimated to be delivered within 12 months of signing of the contract with the system integrator. 2.2.2. Data Centre The second component of this project involves setting up of twostate of art data centres for the CPP to operate from. Delhi and Bangalore are the locations approved by the department for setting up data centres. The application will primarily operate from Delhi while Bangalore will act as a disaster recovery site. The establishment of the Data Centre would be alongside the development of the CPP application. 2.2.3. Digitisation of Legacy Data The third component of the project involves digitisation of records existing with the Pension Sanctioning and disbursement agencies till the roll out of CPP. This activity is slated to be carried out over a period of three years, keeping in view the volume of records involved. 2.3. Roll Out Plan The project envisages three distinct phases of implementation. Phase 1 (at Rollout) – Onboarding of Pensioners retiring from the date of roll out & DPDO Pensioners Phase 2 (Rollout + 12 months) – Onboarding the pensioners from CPPCs other than SBI and PNB, Post Offices and Treasuries Phase 3 (Phase 2 + 12 months) – Onboarding of pensioners from SBI and PNB 2.4. Auxiliary Components of the Project In addition to the core components as brought out above, the realisation of the project would require the following additional components for its effective deployment 2.4.1. Service centres Centralisation of the pension process through CPP would result in the department becoming the sole stakeholder in pension delivery. The department has its presence only at 257 locations across the country through its offices. Hence there is a need to establish service centre in the field to establish last mile connectivity with the pensioner. It is proposed to have presence in approximately 350 districts across the country in the project phase with atleast 2 service centres in each of these districts based on the identity of pensioners in these locations. Three district types of service centres have been proposed under the CPP 1. Information Dissemination Centres: These would be done through Information kiosks and contact centres at places like ECHS centres/CSD canteens/Veterans Cells. Their basic aim is to provide information dissemination (sic) to the pensioner. The kiosks would be self-operated and the contact points are proposed to be manned by ESW welfare volunteers or operated through veteran cells manned by manpower trained on CPP platform. These centres would be connected to CPP over the internet. 2. Information Transmission Centres: These centres would act as points of transmission of grievances/service requests from the field to the Pension processing agency and would be established through post offices, e-seva kendras or state governments, Zila Sainik Boards or through outsourced agencies depending upon the availability and need of each agency. These centres would be connected over the internet. 3. DAD service centres: DAD has designated 149 offices as service centres under CPDS, these service centres would also provide information, accept service requests and provide grievance redressal measures to the pensioner. These centres would be connected to the DAD WAN. 2.4.2. Project Management Unit The CPP project envisages is a high value project involving cutting edge technology. The deliverables are highly technical in quality and quantity and is beyond the capabilities of the department’s expertise. Therefore, for assisting the department in its Project management an external Project management agency is necessary who will provide the technical as well as management advice and aid the department in the timely completion of the project. 2.4.3. Publicity Campaigns and Data Adalats The roll out of CPP would be successful only when there is adequate confidence amongst the pensioners, both new and legacy, about the system. This would require publicity in media, awareness sessions and promotional materials regarding CPP. There would also be a requirement to conduct data Adalats to fill in the data gaps existing in the legacy systems during migration as well as after it. 2.4.4. Centralised Record Storage Facility The CPP implementation would result in significant number of records being moved from the various stakeholders to PCDA (P), Allahabad. State of the art record storage and management facility would be required to be developed at Allahabad to handle this infux of Records. 2.4.5. Strengthening of internal networking of DAD The DAD WAN has now been established with all major DAD officers and Record offices as an initial step towards CPP implementation. However, there would be need to augment and strengthen the capacity and technology involved in this network to handle the load that would be posed by the system. 2.4.6. Provision of Smart cards The incorporation of pension information into smart cards to be issued in lieu of PPOs at a later date is catered for in the CPP system. This can be implemented after successful roll out of the system. Such a card would enable a more futuristic option for the pensioners to possess and have access to pension related information. This would also enable cross organisation integration for the pensioners in the future in cooperation with ESW organisations like ECHS, CSD etc. 2.4.7. Capacity Building The project being of a highly technical nature and since its technical operations are also being proposed to be outsourced to the SI for a period of 7 years, it is necessary for the department to develop in-house capabilities in network and security management through capacity building in these areas to ensure joint management of the Network and security centres. This is very much essential from the point of view of security as well as ensuring the delivery of SLAs by the service provider. 3. Challenges of the project 1. Challenges in implementation for new pensioners a. Establishment of Service Centres: The centralised Pension Package has conceived service centres in the field areas. The establishment of service centres (as well as information kiosks) needs coordination and agreement with a multitude if organisations both governmental and non-governmental. The same will need to be established within the timeframe of implementation of the project. b. Capacity building and manpower training: The new system would require the existing stake holders and clients to be trained for the effective roll out of the system. This is a massive effort that will need to be undertaken through in-house and outsourced efforts. 2. Handling of Legacy data a. Migration of electronic and non-electronic data on pensions available with the department. Pension Sanction Authorities are maintaining physical records of all Defence pensioners since 1948 which consists pf pensioners claim form, discharge roll, service records, medical records and the corrigendum PPOs issued to them. These original documents are extremely valuable documents for the organisation and are to be retained for 75 years as per the Government of India mandate. Considering that there are around 25 lakh pensioners and based on the above estimate of 10 records per pensioner, the total number of records that will be part of this “Digitisation and Migration” project is around 2.5 crores. This is going to be a huge task as it also entails secure and deft handling of very old binders and documents. b. Data Purification and unified level of Updation: Different automation systems exist with the various agencies handling pensions and their data structures are at variance. Further there is a deficiency/inaccuracy of data present in these databases. A major challenge exists in purifying and matching this data and then sourcing the missing data from the available sources. This activity would be more cumbersome with respect to very old data. Further, it is seen that there is mismatch of entitlements across various databases which require intervention for bringing it on to a uniform status. Our current efforts at this exercise have been quite difficult in terms of achieving desired results. 4. Status of the Project The consultant has delivered the detailed project report and the finalisation of the RFP is under process by the department. 5. Cost of Implementation The project cost as assessed by the consultant in his detailed project report alongwith the rough indicative cost of auxiliary components is tabulated below indicating year wise cash out flows over the project duration and operation period. The total expenditure in the project phase would approximately be 158.04 crores under the DAD IT Head and is likely to span four financial years from 2017-28 to 2020-21 depending upon the actual time of conclusion of the contract with the system integrator. The year wise requirement of funds as proposed in the table above during he project phase may be required to be recast based on the milestones for payment falling within that particular financial year. The project would entail a committed liability of 15 crores starting from the completion of the project from 2021 onwards. This project would also require a yearly allotment of approximately Rs 10 crores under office contingency and Rs 2 crores under the transportation head to meet operational requirements under the centralised environment like expenditure on e-post services for postal service centres, conduct of Data Adalats/Pension Adalats to ensure complete coverage, hiring of system support manpower for service centres etc starting from the initiation of the project. 6. Approvals and Budget Commitments The project is estimated to cost Rs 158.04 crores and required the go-ahead approval of the ministry for floating of RFP and also firm budget commitments towards the project cost as brought out above. It is requested that the ministry may accord in-principle approval for the project and necessary budgetary commitments for its implementation. 7. Mode of tendering It is proposed to issue an Advertised Tender Enquiry for the project on a Two Bid System to identify the system integrator for the project. |
ESTIMATED COST OF SPARSH
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CORE COMPONENTS |
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|
|
Amount (in crores) |
||||||||
|
Year 1 |
Year 2 |
Year 3 |
Year 4 |
Year 5 |
Year 6 |
Year 7 |
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|
Component |
Activity |
PROJECT PERIOD |
MAINTENANCE PERIOD |
||||||
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Centralised Pension Package |
Development |
29.38 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Maintenance |
|
6.25 |
6.25 |
6.25 |
6.25 |
6.25 |
6.25 |
||
|
Data Centre 1 |
Development |
10.42 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Maintenance |
|
1.62 |
1.62 |
1.62 |
1.62 |
1.62 |
1.62 |
||
|
Digitisation of Records |
|
4.16 |
3.12 |
3.12 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sub Total |
54.38 |
12.61 |
12.61 |
9.49 |
9.49 |
9.49 |
9.49 |
||
|
Contingency |
2 |
.5 |
.5 |
.3 |
.3 |
.3 |
.3 |
||
|
Total |
82.6 |
39.16 |
|||||||
|
AUXILIARY COMPONENTS |
||||||||
|
|
Amount (in crores) |
|||||||
|
Year 1 |
Year 2 |
Year 3 |
Year 4 |
Year 5 |
Year 6 |
Year 7 |
||
|
Component |
Activity |
PROJECT PERIOD |
MAINTENANCE PERIOD |
|||||
|
Service Centres |
(3lakhs 350 districts) |
10.5 |
6.3 |
4.2 |
1.5 |
1.5 |
1.5 |
1.5 |
|
Project Management Unit |
Hiring of a Project Management team |
1.18 |
1.18 |
1.18 |
|
|
|
|
|
Centralised Storage Facility |
State of Art Record storage |
|
15 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Strengthening and Scaling up Internal Network |
1. Consultancy 2. Upgradation of Bandwidth and Network technology |
4.5 |
4.5 |
4.5 |
2.5 |
2.5 |
2.5 |
2.5 |
|
Capacity building of EDP staff |
Certified courses in Networking and Security |
0.3 |
0.3 |
0.3 |
0.2 |
0.2 |
0.2 |
0.2 |
|
Smart Pension Cards |
Printing machine & Smart cards |
|
|
30.05 |
0.7 |
0.7 |
0.7 |
0.7 |
|
Total |
16.48 |
22.78 |
36.18 |
2.4 |
2.4 |
2.4 |
2.4 |
|
|
75.44 |
9.6 |
|||||||
Year-wise outgo of Funds during the project period is estimated to be as follows
|
YEAR |
CORE COMPONENTS |
AUXILIARY COMPONENTS |
TOTAL |
|
YEAR 1 |
56.38 |
16.48 |
72.86 |
|
YEAR 2 |
13.11 |
22.78 |
35.89 |
|
YEAR 3 |
13.11 |
36.18 |
49.29 |
|
TOTAL |
82.6 |
75.44 |
158.04 |
* * * *
