SB Order 16/2021 – SOL merger activity for CBS Post Offices

SB Order 16/2021 – completion of SOL merger activity for merged CBS Post offices No. FS-13/7/2020-FS Dated 30.06.2021

SB Order 16/2021

FS-13/7/2020-FS
Government Of India
Ministry of Communication
Department of Posts
(FS Division)

Dak Bhawan,New Delhi-110001
Dated 30.6.2021

To
All Heads of Circles/Regions

Subject of SB order 16/2021: -Regarding completion of SOL merger activity for CBS Post Offices.

Sir/Madam

A detailed Standard operating Procedure (SOP) for SOL merger activity for merged CBS Post offices was shared by CEPT with CPCs/Circles through email dated 03.10.2017. When a CBS Post offices is merged with another CBS Post office, all the Accounts/agents/BOs etc should also be transferred to the SOL ID of the other CBS Post office.

2. It has been brought to the notice of the Postal Directorate that most circles have not completed SOL merger activity as prescribed. As a result, accounts are still mapped to the merged SOL ID. This may lead to public complaint, incorrect accounting and misappropriation of government money.

3. In view of above, I am directed to share the standard operating procedure (SOP) for SOL merger activity once again. The SOP must be followed in all instances of merger of one CBS Post office into another. The existing pendency must be cleared by 31.07.2021 under intimation to this office.

4. It is requested to circulate this SB Order to all concerned for information and necessary action.

5. This is issues with approval of DDG(FS)

Yours Sincerely

(Devendra Sharma)
Assistant Director (SB-II)

Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) SB order 16/2021 – for SOL Merger Activity.

Section 1. MERGER REQUEST

Request for SOL Merger is received through CPC.The Request should be sent with:

• SOL Transfer Office Accounts Pending Operations Report generated by the CPC (this report is referred to as Merger Validation Report in this document)
• Scanned copy of the orders issued by the concerned Division.
• Following Information should be available in the request /some of the Divisions are issuing the merger orders including these details:
  • SOLID to be merged
  • Name of SOL
  • SOLID in which merged
  • Name of SOL
  • Date of Closure of SOL
  • No. of BOs to be transferred to new SOL
  • No. of BOs, if any, to be transferred to any other SOL than SOL specified in Column (iii)
  • No. of Agents
  • Approximate no. of Accounts(All schemes put together)

• Detailed instructions sent to circles /CPC regarding merger of SOLs 03/10/2017

Section 2 -ACTION TO BE TAKEN ON MERGER VALIDATION REPORT

The validations which get listed in the report have to be cleared by the concerned SOL. Typically, following validations get listed in the report:

1. Pending Transactions to be done through HCASHPND
2. Pending Closure of clearing zones
3. Negative balance in OAP accounts due to excess payout of interest

ACTION

• MIS/TD/SCSS account numbers are shown in the negative balance of sundry account- This means that the excess amount has been paid as interest in r/o those accounts; HFTI can be used to list the transactions in the sundry account with reference number shown in the report (from dated field as blank and to date field as current date). These transactions will help the SOL find out the excess payment mode-Cash/Transfer to SB. This amount has be cross-verified with the vouchers to find out the payout was actually made to the customer or if the reference number was entered wrongly.
• Some of the SOLs recover such excess payouts and credit the amount to UCR manually or credit to 0324 account (OAP) on date of excess payment itself. In some cases the excess payouts are not noticed/Recovered. Once the concerned SBCO/Inspector Checks this and certifies that necessary recovery has been made, CEPT will initiate necessary action for rectifying these entries.
• If OAP accounts are in negative balance, Transfer of balance to the new SOL cannot be done. Hence it is mandatory to clear the negative balances, by crediting the OAP accounts; L2 team has advised that office accounts of non-OAP type(e.g. 0340) should be debited for such transactions as most of the SOLs have not accounted the recovery in 0324. Approval is obtained from Directorate for making credit entries into the respective OAP accounts by debiting 0340. This will be done by CEPT, based on the sanction memo issued by the concerned Division conveying confirmation of the recoveries made.

4. Asynchronous balance in office accounts.
ACTION : BUAAB batch to be executed by CEPT for the SOL

5. Any other items listed in the report has to be handled on case to case basis.

6. All entries pending for verification in HAFI should be cleared.

• If Account closure operations are pending, SOL/Division should compare the relevant manual records and take necessary action to verify /cancel the closure operation, Closure transaction will be created on the date of verification of closure.
• If account opening operations are pending, but account is shown as closed in HACLI such pending entries in HAFI can be ignored.

Section 3. MERGER ACTIVITES

1. Bulk transfer of customer accounts(CEPT/SOL) Failure reports generated during this activity will be shared with the SOL with following instructions:
   • Accounts which are shown as closed require no action at the SOL.
   • Accounts which are shown as unauthorized have to be verified and then transferred by SOL user as per regular account transfer in HACXFSOL.
   • Accounts which are shown as having transactions can be transferred by SOL user on the next working day using HACXFSOL.
   • once all the accounts are transferred out, Please ensure that userid from the SOL get transferred out.
2. Modification of account SOLID for the BOs in CBOMAP(CEPT)
3. BO Account operation at new SOL for RICT transactions (CEPT)
   • CPC to coordinate with the Division for relevant changes in CSI hierarchy data and MDM portal for the BOs, for ensuring accounting RICT transactions at New SOL.

4. Modifying Agents operating SOL to the new SOLID in HDSAMM (SOL) – DSA Ids can be modified in HDSAMM and the Set id field should be updated with the new SOLID/HO setID so that agent transactions for the transferred out accounts can be accepted at the new SOL without any issues. This is required for handling agent transactions during the wait period between the merger request and completion of all the merger activities.

5. Transferring out of all users from the SOL (CPC/Userid Team) – CPC to register request in userid portal for transferring users and userid teams will do the needful.

6. Bulk transfer of Signatures (CEPT)

7. Bulk transfer of CIF(CEPT)

8. Bulk transfer of Agents (CEPT)

9. Balance transfer from Office Accounts ( CEPT)

10. Delinking of SOL from all sets and deletion-marking of the SOL(CEPT)

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Download PDF of SB Order 16/2021