Finance Minister and Rural Development Rainbo Paita presented the 2019 Department of Finance Annual Management Report at the parliament sitting on the 11th of November, 2020.
The major milestone reforms presented includes IFMS rollout, mordernisation of Public Finance (Management) Act 2016 (PFMA), establishment of new National Procurement Act, 2018 (NPA), successful control of non-tax revenue, review of Statutory Bodies and Trust Accounts and the Phone against Corruption initiative undertaken by the Department.
Minister Paita said IFMS system under the Financial Management Improvement Program is one major government reform that aims to strengthen financial systems and processes resulting in improved reporting, enhanced controls, increased accountability, greater transparency and an enhanced internal control environment across all levels of Government.
In his presentation, Minister Paita added that since 2019, IFMS had been rolled out to 43 National Departments and most are fully operational on IFMS. Whilst Statutory Authorities have different operating and financial reporting requirements to national agencies, a suitable work environment was developed within IFMS for statutory bodies. Whilst 6 statutory bodies are currently using the system, it has been rolled-out to more statutory bodies including Provincial Health Authorities that are funded directly through the National Budget in 2019.
Minister Paita also stressed that whilst IFMS is a good system to reduce problems that have been identified in the previous system (PGAS), however, there are few issues such as power, internet connectivity.
Minister Paita encourages all stakeholders and partners to work collectively to address these issues as the Department will do a major system analysis and address these issues going forward.
