The Controller and Accountants General Department (CAGD) has served notice that it will ruthlessly deal with Metropolitan, Municipal and District Finance Officers (MMDFOs) sidestepping the Ghana Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS).
The warning followed what the CAGD said was a clear attempt to sabotage the usage of GIFMIS by finance officers at some MMDAs.
The CAGD, observed this during an on-going workshop on New Standardised Observation Operations and Projects for MMDAs 2018 Budget Preparation some of the MMDFOs are refusing to use the GIFMIS to conduct financial transactions at their respective MMDAs and confirmed by the Budget Execution reports of various MMDAs generated from the system at the GIFMIS Secretariat.
The Observations are as follows;
- After the successful processing of Warrants on the system, the corresponding Purchase Orders (POs), Payment Vouchers (PVs) and Payments are done outside the system by the Accounts Section (MMDFOs) of the various MMDAs.
- In some cases where corresponding PVs were booked against the released Warrants on the system, manual cheques were written outside the system without offsetting the liability on the system. This in turn artificially bloats the liabilities on the GIFMIS which might not show a true financial position of the MMDA.
The Control and Accountant-General, Eugene Ofosuhene thus warned in a letter copied to all Deputy Controllers and Accountant-Generals and distributed to all Regional Directors, MFOs and DFOs of CAGD that “all MMDFOs are by this letter reminded that they are required by the Public Financial Management Act 2016 (Act 921) under sections 25(6) and 98(b) to use GIFMIS to process public financial transactions and the various corresponding sanctions that comes with the failure to act in accordance with the Law.”
“All MMDFOs are to also note that, the Department will not hesitate to severely sanction any finance officer found not to be using the GIFMIS as stipulated in the Law stated above,” added the letter.
GIFMIS
The Ghana Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) was launched in September 2009, as part of the Public Financial Management (PFM) Reforms in Ghana. The Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) under the auspices of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MoFEP) is responsible for the reforms.
It is jointly funded by four development partners- the (i).World Bank (ii). DFID of UK (iii). European Commission-EU (iv). Danish International Development Agency-DANIDA.
GIFMIS basically involves the use of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) to improve on public financial management in the Ghana.
GIFMIS is jointly being implemented by three public institutions, and the major areas of the reforms are;
- Financial Management and Controls (Controller and Accountant General’s Department)
- Budget Reforms using the Programme Based Budgeting (Ministry of Finance)
- Human Resource Management Information System (Public Services Commission)
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
