Delhi govt to track its assets in real time

New Delhi: Delhi govt has brought all its movable and immovable assets under a unified real-time digital monitoring system, enabling authorities to track assets through procurement and allocation to decommissioning and disposal.The move comes after govt identified over 16,000 immovable land parcels and properties across nearly 60 departments, agencies and autonomous bodies, most of which were under fragmented ownership of various departments and agencies for decades.Delhi has adopted the eSAM (e-System for Asset Management) platform, an application developed by the National Informatics Centre, to streamline and automate asset management across departments. An order by the information technology department says the eSAM portal will now function as the “single authoritative source” for the complete lifecycle management of all physical and digital assets owned by Delhi govt.“The new system is expected to help create a consolidated database of govt-owned resources, including land, buildings, equipment, vehicles and digital infrastructure. It will also improve audit compliance and reduce the risk of loss, misuse or underutilisation of govt assets by creating a traceable digital trail for every asset transaction. The system is aimed at improving inter-departmental coordination, ensuring accountability, reducing duplication and enabling data-driven decision-making,” said an official.All newly procured assets will have to be recorded immediately after govt receives them, while departments will maintain real-time records of allocation and assignment of assets to employees or offices. The platform will maintain documentation on decommissioning, recycling or disposal of assets.“The system will integrate inventory and stock management functions into a centralised digital platform so that authorities can track assets in real-time,” an official said.The use of the system is mandatory across departments with effect from May 1, after a high-level meeting which flagged that asset tracking mechanisms had not been fully streamlined. “Therefore, to improve transparency, accountability and efficiency, all assets must be managed only through the eSAM portal,” the IT department order said.As part of the implementation process, designated officers have been asked to update their profiles on the portal and obtain valid login credentials. Store in-charges across departments have been told to carry out a detailed reconciliation of existing physical inventory with departmental employee records to eliminate discrepancies.A training session on eSAM system was conducted for officials of the IT department on April 15, covering operational procedures and system functionalities.