North-Western Province Permanent Secretary, Jeston Mulando has implored government officers in the province to embrace the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) aimed at strengthening financial transparency and accountability in the management of public financial resources.
Mr Mulando observed that for some time now government has run into difficulties in trying to fully overcome financial accountability problems among other governance concerns confronting the country.
He said it was time to change in resolving the country’s financial management and maintain the goodwill that the international community has extended to the country as may be evidenced by the country’s ascendance to the HIPC Completion Point.
Mr Mulando said government has identified problems with the current Financial Management Information Systems used for both managing financial resources and decision making, that have affected government performance in economic growth and poverty reduction.
“The main problems identified were that the systems were inadequate; they failed to sufficiently support controls and transparency in financial management processes and reporting; and they also had a negative impact on accountability”, he said.
Mr Mulando said it was for that reason that government and cooperating partners have designed the IFMIS because the problems identified had undermined government’s ability to strategically manage public financial resources.
The Permanent Secretary said this when he officially opened a two-day IFMIS workshop organised by the Ministry of Finance and National Planning in Solwezi today.
He said the implementation of the IFMIS project would assist government achieve the expected benefits since it would permit the optimization of current business process across multiple units/departments or ministries and reduce business cycle time from weeks to hours.
Mr Mulando said all those improvements would translate to increased controls, accountability, transparency and cost reduction in the operations of government.
North-Western Province is among the eight identified pilot sites to start implementing the IFMIS project before it is spread to other ministries, provinces and other Spending Agencies.
Others include Office of the Auditor General, Ministries of Works and Supply, Education, Foreign Affairs, Communication and Transport, Finance and National Planning and Eastern Province.
A good financial reporting system is a key basis for effective control of resources. However, I hope the reports that the system will generate are reviewed by concerned people on time so that corrective action is taken ASAP.It is useless tospend ona system which is not effectively utilised.
#1, I agree that this is a step in the right direction. However, alot of caution needs to be taken to ensure system security. If you thought manual fraud was bad, it’s nothing compared to sophisticated electronic crime. In the wrong hands, it’ll even be easier to steal and cover up billions of kwacha. I wouldn’t be surprised if “abena Lusaka” are already studying and plotting ways of duping the electronic GL hahaha
IFMIS IS ONE OF THE BEST SYSTEM THAT I THINK IT WIL WIIL HELP THE COUNTRY TO ACCOUNT WELL THE FINANCIAL RESOURCERS