LUCKNOW, July 2 -- The fourth regional conclave of the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) was held on Tuesday, bringing together senior officials and stakeholders from Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal to discuss ways to strengthen digital financial governance and improve public fund tracking mechanisms. Shyam S Dubey, controller general of accounts (CGA), Government of India, highlighted the critical role PFMS plays in ensuring transparent, accountable, and real-time tracking of public expenditure. In his address, Dubey laid emphasis on the need for continuous capacity building, inter-state collaboration, and technology integration in public financial systems. Deepak Kumar, additional chief secretary, finance, reaffirmed Uttar Pradesh government's commitment to leveraging the PFMS for more effective fund flow management, especially in centrally-sponsored schemes (CSS) and direct benefit transfers (DBT). He also shared the state's best practices and recent advances in budgetary reforms and expenditure management. Experts also discussed SNA SPARSH and a number of utilities recently developed as well as those under development. SNA SPARSH is a new mechanism of online fund flow management of CSS, the responsibility of whose implementation rests with the state governments. This mechanism follows a 'just-in-time' approach of fund release, wherein funds are released when payment claim has been generated in the system, thereby doing away with parking of funds, and delays in utilisation of funds already released, and submission of utilisation certificates. The event saw active participation from senior officials of the finance departments and treasuries of the three states. Technical sessions focused on the evolving features of PFMS, integration with state financial management systems, real-time MIS and dashboard utilities, and troubleshooting for state-level implementations....