Village Organization (VO) generally appoints Village Organization Assistant (VOA) from among the members of Self Help Group and he/she is a resident of the same village having experience in nurturing and strengthening of Self Help Groups and Village Organization. The Village Organizations are paying honorarium to the Village Organization Assistants from their income. Village Organization Assistants play an important role in conduct of meetings, bookkeeping and day-to-day activities of the organization.
2. The Chief Executive Officer, Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP), Hyderabad has submitted proposals and requested for financial assistance to all the Village Organizations of Telangana to pay honorarium to the Village Organization Assistants an amount of Rs.3000/- per month in addition to that given by Village Organizations as a honorarium and to issue guidelines/ modalities for recruitment of VOAs and removal of VOAs vide reference read above.
In order to strengthen the Village Organizations / affiliated Self Help Groups in the State and keeping in view the important role of Village Organization Assistants in conduct of meetings, book-keeping and day to day activities of the organization, after careful examination of the matter, Government hereby sanction an amount of Rs.3000/ per month for 12 months of 2017-18 w.e.f. 01-04-2017 as financial assistance to all the Village Organizations towards Village Organization Assistants honorarium. In supersession of orders issued earlier if any, the guidelines appended to this order shall be followed.
4. The Chief Executive Officer, Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty shall take necessary further action accordingly.
5. This order issues with the concurrence of Finance Department vide their U.O.No.7538/238/A1/EBS. VIII/2017, Dated:19-07-2017.
Functions of Village Organization Assistants, procedure for selection and removal of Village Organization Assistants by Village Organizations
1. Functions of Village Organization Assistant:
1.1. The functions of VOA who is appointed by VO are as mentioned below:
i. Facilitate conducting of meetings of Self Help Groups (SHGs) on a fortnightly basis regularly, with focus on social issues in one meeting and financial issues in other meeting, and ensure attendance of members.
ii. Entering details of Self Help Group (SHG) transactions in books of account wherever required and in tablet/computer as required by VO from time to time in the meeting itself.
iii. Facilitate conducting of regular meetings of VOs on a fortnightly basis and ensure attendance of EC members.
iv. Maintain VO books of accounts manually or in online accounting system and enter details in Tablet/Computer, as required by VO.
v. Facilitate functioning of VOs, mobilization of SHGs savings and Share Capital from SHGs by VO in compliance with bye laws.
vi. Ensure that all the SHGs in a village become members of VO concerned and collect membership fee every year.
vii. Ensure that internal audit of all the SHGs and internal audit and statutory audit of VOs is done as required by VO.
viii. Facilitate loans to all needy and eligible members of SHGs from banks, Stree Nidhi and from various sources and projects for livelihoods and other purposes by facilitating preparation of HLPs, wherever required and grounding thereof.
ix. Facilitate mobilization of Samruddhi deposits, loan documentation and preservation thereof as required by Stree Nidhi.
x. Facilitate recovery and minimize Non Performance Assets (NPAs) in Bank linkage, Stree Nidhi and other loans as per the guidelines.
xi. Data collection, updation and facilitating digitalization of financial transactions as entrusted to them by VO.
xii. Facilitate formation of new SHGs with leftover Poorest of the poor.
xiii. Facilitating implementation of various insurance and pensions schemes and enrolling members as per the guidelines of SERP/Stree Nidhi.
xiv. Play key role in implementation of various anti-poverty programmes of the Government including MGNREGS, Individual House Hold Lavatories (IHHL), Haritha Haram, Antyodaya etc., as indicated by VO.
xv. Attend meetings convened by MS, ZS etc., as required.
xvi. Carry out all tasks entrusted by the VO from time to time.
1.2. VOA shall not collect any charges for extending bank loans and Stree Nidhi loans except as per guidelines issued by VO based on resolution of Executive Committee (EC) of VO. The VOA shall keep books of account/records of VO with President of VO. Whenever they absent themselves from the duties for whatever be the reasons, they shall not keep any books of accounts/records, Information Technology infrastructure etc., with them and hand over the same to President of the VO failing which VO shall remove them from the responsibilities and select a new VOA.
1.3. VOA shall be responsible for any fraud or mis-utilization of amounts of VO or any other funds meant for SHGs received from higher tier agencies including bank loans and Stree Nidhi loans.They shall not take any advances from VO concerned.
2. Monitoring and assessment of performance of VOAs by VO:
The VOs shall evaluate whether performance of VOA is satisfactory or not based on the outcomes, as mentioned below:
i. At least 80% of the SHGs in a VO shall be in A and B grades as per the criteria laid down by SERP/Stree Nidhi.
ii. The VO shall be in ‘A’ or ‘B’ grade as per the criteria laid down by SERP/ Stree Nidhi.
iii. Repayment rate of all the loans including bank loans shall not be less than 95% as calculated by SERP and in case of bank loans, NPAs shall not be more than 2%.
iv. Repayment rate of Stree Nidhi loans shall not be less than 98% and NPA shall not be more than 0.50% as calculated by Stree Nidhi.
The performance indicators shall be as reflected in the Management Information System (MIS), in the web sites of SERP and Stree Nidhi.
In addition, development parameters of the village like Open Defecation Free (ODF) village and social development parameters of SHG members like literacy rate, institutional deliveries etc., and other parameters as decided by VO from time to time shall also be linked to the grading of SHGs and VOs shortly and hence shall also be used for gauging the performance of VOAs.
3. Guidelines on Selection of VOAs by VO:
All the VOAs including the existing VOAs have to be selected afresh keeping in view their capabilities to discharge responsibilities entrusted to them.
a) Criteria for continuance of existing VOAs :
i. As the existing VOAs could be 7th class and above and selected when they were in the age group of 18-45 years, the EC of VO shall decide on continuance or otherwise of VOA depending on their performance.
ii. All other eligibility criteria for continuance of existing VOAs except the criteria mentioned at Sl.No.(i)&(iii) in 3 (b) shall be followed.
b) Eligibility criteria for selection of new VOA :
As proper functioning of VOs and SHGs is important to facilitate availing of various services by SHG women, it is necessary that VOAs with due qualifications are appointed by VO. In this context, the following guidelines are issued to the VOs for selection of VOAs, wherever the existing VOAs are not found suitable and where VOs do not have VOAs and in case these guidelines are not followed by the VO, SERP shall not release the grant support to the VOs:
i. Candidates, preferably a women SHG member with a minimum qualification of 10th Pass shall be considered for selection. However, no SHG leader can be appointed as VOA.
ii. The candidates shall belong to the same village and resident of the same village.
iii. The candidates shall be in the age group of 18 to 40 years.
iv. In case the candidate is an SHG women, the SHG shall be preferably in A or B grade. In case of other candidates, they shall be the ward of a SHG member.
v. Anganwadis, ASHA workers and wives of Government employees, Indira Kranthi Padham (IKP) and Mahathma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) employees shall not be selected as VOA.
vi. They shall not be leaders or Office bearers of SHGs and VO and MS. They shall not belong to the families of Office Bearers of SHGs and VOs/Mandal Samakhyas. They shall also not be elected representatives and belong to their families.
vii. Each VO will have one VOA irrespective of number of SHGs affiliated to it.
viii. Candidates shall have clean track record and shall not have any criminal background. In case of misappropriation of funds in VO the VOA working presently shall not be continued even if qualified otherwise, if her /his involvement is proved or if they were negligent in working.
ix. They shall not be members/office bearers of any political parties and shall not be associated with political parties.
x. If qualified candidates are not available in the same village, candidates from the nearest village may be considered if qualified otherwise.
4. Procedure to be followed for selection of VOA by VO:
i. A meeting of General body of VO may be conducted ensuring required quorum, wherein awareness on the process to be followed in selection of VOA may be created and applications in prescribed format from the eligible candidates may be invited (Annexure I)
ii. Dates for submission of applications from eligible candidates may be decided as also for selection.
iii. A meeting of EC of VO may be conducted for selection of the candidate by ensuring attendance of atleast 75% of the EC members and a suitable candidate may be selected following a transparent process. A format for resolution of EC is enclosed (Annexure II) and the same may be uploaded to SERP portal within two days from the date of selection of VOA.
iv. The above procedure is to be followed even where the existing VOA is to be continued and EC has to certify the performance and continuance of the existing VOA. However, there is no need for conducting General Body of VO in these cases.
v. The VO may give a letter of offer to the VOA signed by the President of VO enclosing the roles and responsibilities of VOA under acknowledgement. A format is enclosed for the purpose (Annexure III).
vi. Cluster Coordinator (CC) of the VO concerned shall ensure that conduct of EC meetings, and procedure for selection/continuance of VOA is done in a transparent manner and as per prescribed guidelines by SERP and Government and the CC concerned shall certify the same as per the format enclosed (Annexure IV).
vii. These VOAs shall be selected and completely accountable to the Village Organization and as such these matters do not come under the purview of SERP.
viii. There shall not be any outside influence in selection of candidates, including interference of SERP staff in selection, which if found will be dealt with seriously and the selection will be cancelled.
5. Procedure for removal of VOA by VOs :
The services of the VOA will be continued by VO as long as he/she enjoys confidence of the VO. The following guidelines may be followed by VO for terminating services of a VOA:
i. In case of non-performance by VOA for continuous period of 6 months as reflected in functioning of SHGs affiliated to VO and the VO concerned and not meeting above mentioned performance benchmarks, VOs will have discretion to remove the VOAs unless there is an undertaking by VOA concerned to improve the performance in the next 3 months.
ii. If the performance of VOA has not improved even after 3 months, the services of VOA shall be terminated and assistance to VO by SERP will be stopped after the next 3 months.
iii. In case of removal of VOA for non-performance, the issue shall be decided in the EC meeting of VO and a General Body meeting may be convened wherein members are informed of removal of VOA and for inviting applications for selection of a new VOA as mentioned earlier. The VO shall recruit a new VOA as early as possible and report to SERP for restoring the assistance.
6. Procedure for release of Honorarium to VO by SERP:
i. The resolution of the EC of VO shall be uploaded for release of assistance (Rs.3,000/-) to the VO. The amount will be released by SERP to the VO account concerned.
ii. VO will pay the honorarium subject to its terms and conditions as decided in the EC of VO. The amount of Rs.3,000/-is purely an assistance to the Village Organizations to pay a minimum honorarium to the VOA.
iii. Honorarium should not be paid in cash and it should be through account payee cheque/electronic transfer.
iv. In the beginning of every quarter, a resolution of EC certifying that VOA is working for the VO may be uploaded (Annexure V).
v. VOs shall pay an amount of Rs. 5000/ per month to VOA, including Rs. 3000/- paid by SERP, if its’ financial position permits the same. Additional honorarium of VOA, over and above Rs. 3000/, shall be paid only from the profit of the VO and shall not be paid from the grants received from any source like CIF given from SERP and grants from other institutions, savings and share capital from SHGs etc.
Annexure- III
Model Offer letter to VOA with roles and responsibilities and terms and conditions
Smt/Sri
Sub: Appointment of services as VOA – Reg.
We are pleased to appoint you as VOA of our VO …………… to discharge various roles and responsibilities enlisted in the appendix to this letter. This appointment shall be governed by the following terms and conditions:
You are solely accountable to us and have to function under our supervision and control.
Criteria for assessing your performance will be as mentioned in the appendix to this letter.
You will continue to function as VOA as long as your performance is satisfactory as assessed by VO based on various guidelines issued by us from time to time and roles and responsibilities entrusted.
The Government / SERP is in no way connected either with selection and removal.
Other terms and conditions:
VOA should work sincerely, honestly and with utmost dedication and shall not interfere in decision making by VO.
In case of misappropriation of funds in VO the VOA shall not be continued even if qualified otherwise, if her /his involvement is proved or if they were negligent in working.
Any violation of eligibility criteria post engagement of your services as VOA will lead to disqualification and yours services shall be discontinued.
You shall not function as VOA for any other VO.
Your services shall be terminated if, …
in case of non-performance for continuous period of 6 months as reflected in functioning of SHGs affiliated to VO and the VO concerned and not meeting performance benchmarks.
Another three months’ time may be given if an undertaking to improve the performance in the next three months submitted the VOA.
If the performance of VOA is not improved even after three months, the VOA shall have the right to terminate your services without any prior notice.
You shall not participate in any strike, instigate others and shall behave properly with Self Help Groups, Office Bearers of VO and Mandal Samakhyas and all other connected.
You shall not function to the detriment of functioning of SHGs and VOs or in implementation of any other programme entrusted by VO.
In case of violation of any terms and conditions, the VO shall have the right to terminate your services.
The VO will pay Rs. .….. as honorarium per month subject to its terms and conditions as decided in the EC of VO.
The VO may withdraw payment of honorarium of Rs. 3000/ per month to VOA, from the financial support received from SERP, if SERP stops such support depending on financial soundness of the VO and its capability to pay honorarium considering that the VO has to be self –sustainable in the long run.
Appendix
Functions of VOA :
The functions of VOA deployed by VO are as mentioned below:
Facilitate conducting of meetings of SHGs on a fortnightly basis regularly, with focus on social issues in one meeting and financial issues in other meeting, and ensure attendance of members.
Entering details of SHG transactions in books of account wherever required and in tablet/computer as required by VO from time to time in the meeting itself.
Facilitate conducting of regular meetings of VOs on a fortnightly basis and ensure attendance of EC members.
Maintain VO books of accounts manually or in online accounting system and enter details in Tablet/Computer, as required by VO.
Facilitate functioning of VOs, mobilization of SHGs savings and Share Capital from SHGs by VO in compliance with bye laws.
Ensure that all the SHGs in a village become members of VO concerned and collect membership fee every year.
Ensure that internal audit of all the SHGs and internal audit and statutory audit of VOs is done as required by VO.
Facilitate loans to all needy and eligible members of SHGs from banks, Stree Nidhi and from various sources and projects for livelihoods and other purposes by facilitating preparation of HLPs, wherever required and grounding thereof.
Facilitate mobilization of Samruddhi deposits, loan documentation and preservation thereof as required by Stree Nidhi.
Facilitate recovery and minimize NPAs in Bank linkage, Stree Nidhi and other loans as per the guidelines.
Data collection, updation and facilitating digitalization of financial transactions as entrusted to them by VO.
Facilitate formation of new SHGs with leftover Poorest of the poor.
Facilitating implementation of various insurance and pensions schemes and enrolling members as per the guidelines of SERP/Stree Nidhi.
Play key role in implementation of various anti-poverty programmes of the Government including MGNREGS, Individual House Hold Lavatories (IHHL), Haritha Haram, Antyodaya etc., as indicated by VO.
Attend meetings convened by MS,ZS etc., as required.
Carry out all tasks entrusted by the VO from time to time.
Your performance will be assessed based on the following outcomes:
At least 80% of the SHGs in a VO shall be in A and B grades as per the criteria laid down by SERP/Stree Nidhi.
The VO shall be in ‘A’ or ‘B’ grade as per the criteria laid down by SERP/ Stree Nidhi.
iii. Repayment rate of all the loans including bank loans shall not be less than 95% as calculated by SERP and in case of bank loans, NPAs shall not be more than 2%.
Repayment rate of Stree Nidhi loans shall not be less than 98% and NPA shall not be more than 0.50% as calculated by Stree Nidhi.
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