Defence Ministry developing Centralised Payment System for Armed Forces

New Delhi: Defence Accounts Department (DAD) of the Defence Ministry is developing a centralised payment system for the Armed Forces and other defence institutions that have different legacy systems for their pay, allowances, pensions and gratuities. Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA) Rajnish Kumar said on Thursday after visiting the office of Principal Controller of Defence Accounts (Officers) in Pune.

"The three premier entities we cater to — the Army, Navy and the Air Force and other entities including Border Roads, DRDO and Coast Guard — have different legacy IT systems for matters related to payments of any kind. Traditionally, DAD has been dealing with these entities in the different IT platforms, but that is not the way forward," he said.

"Over the past one year, we have been developing a centralised system to deal with the variety of entities through the integrated platform. The modern IT world provides tools for this. The United States Department of Defence, which deals with equally complex systems, has done the same," he added.

CGDA said, "We have got various verticals like pay and personnel claims, seller payments, internal audit, pensions and others. All these verticals will be brought under the centralised payment system. We have worked on all aspects of the new system, including cyber security. We expect to complete the system by the end of the current financial year."

"By incorporating various AI tools, we will have a foolproof, safe and effective centralised system. A dedicated system for making payments of third party sellers will start functioning this month-end," he further said.

During his visit, he presided over the inauguration of various projects and addressed officials.

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