Mogadishu: Somalia’s Ministry of Finance (MoF) has launched today new Financial Management Information Systems (SFMIS), the overall objective is to provide a system with adequate audit trails to improve administrative accountability in processing transactions. Also, improved timeliness, accuracy and comprehensiveness of financial reports will aid effectiveness of decision making.
In a ceremony attended by key Federal Ministers, Governor of Central Bank, Civil Service Commission, Airport & Seaport Authorities, Accountant General Office Auditor General, and various delegates, Minister Hussein Abdi Halane announced Somalia Financial Management Information Systems (SFMIS) that is more credible with greater transparency on contracts/concessions review and asset recovery.
“The goal is to deploy a robust IT infrastructure to all of the MoF offices and all key Government institutions and stakeholders,” he underlined.
This new system will focus on Budgeting, Expenditures, Revenue Collection and that will result in improved reporting capabilities and establishing an accurate audit trail. In addition to that, expenses and revenue related data will be entered in the system. Electronic financial reports through the SFMIS system will also be published and posted to the Ministry’s website.
“The previous manual system lacked transparency and accountability and was difficult to pay the salaries of government employees on time and perhaps used to take more days to fix it. After implementing this new system we hope our public finances will be managed properly and will improve the overall Public finanace management,” Farhan Mohamud added.
According to the new PFM, the Ministry will have the mandate to manage procurement processes across Ministries, Departments and other government institutions. MoF is committed to control contracts and procurement processes. After bids accepted by the MoF, vendors will send invoices to Ministries, Departments or Agencies, which then request payment of the invoice to the Accountant General Office.
Each specific payment authorized to a vendor by the Accountant General’s Office made directly from the Central Bank to vendors’ bank accounts held with commercial banks, inside and outside of Somalia. The Central Bank of Somalia (CBS) reports daily to the Accountant General’s Office on a consolidated Treasury Single Account System.
The Central bank processes payments instructions to pay a specific vendor. Transfer is made from the Treasury Single Account to a settlement account held at the Central Bank by a commercial bank.
The new system requires vendors to obtain a Business Registration Number (BRN) from the Ministry of Commerce.
SFMIS will be going live in January 2015, which will support the above said reforms. User testing and training is currently underway.
The SFMIS implementation is being financed by the World Bank and the Federal Government of Somalia welcomes this support.
“We are grateful to all our Development Partners and other stakeholders that have supported the PFM reform process in various ways and beseech even more support and commitment in ensuring that we continuously fully meet the expectations of all our various stakeholders. Our appreciation also goes to the entire implementation team for the high level of professionalism and commitment that has so far been exhibited throughout this initiative.”, Faysal Warsame, Project Manager of Somali Financial Management Information Systems, Concluded.
More information about the SFMIS implementation can be got from the MOF website at http://www.mof.gov.so/public-financial-management-pfm/
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