<span style="color: #222222;">Punjab Local Government Department is all set to launch a drive towards gradual paperless governance from 1st of October. Towards this end, the Local Government Department and Punjab Municipal Infrastructure Development Company has organized 'Consultative Workshop on Municipal Accounting Reforms Transparency, Robust Finances, and Future Growth' at Chandigarh today.<br />''<br />''Addressing officials of the department, accountants, Diploma holders in Computerised Financial Accounting and Chartered Accountants of cities and trusts in the state, present in the conference, Principal Secretary of Local Government Department Vivek Pratap Singh said, that Local Government Minister Dr. Inderbir Singh Nijjar is keen to implement the 'Double Entry Based Accrual Accounting' (DEBAA), hence the department has initiated municipal financial reforms for transparency in urban local services, strengthening financial management, removing financial deficiencies and future-oriented development.<br />''<br />''He informed that after implementing the online system DEBAA, the department and its wings spread across the state will be easily audited, prior budget proposals can be made effortlessly and officials posted at two places will be able to easily work at both their places. He said, the municipal financial reforms will further strengthen transparency and financial management in urban local services.<br />''<br />''The Principal Secretary said that after implementing DEBAA properly in Punjab, daily account closing will be mandatory. He said that the opening balances of all cities will be compiled and new and latest softwares will be rolled out. He said, this system will increase transparency in Urban Governance, make cities creditworthy, decrease chances of misuse of municipal properties and make budget formation and finance management more efficient for administrators.</span><br />