By Awa Macalo
The Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, on Friday validated the integrated financial management and information system (IFMIS) report after concluding ten years project funded by the World Bank.
The purpose of the IFMIS project was to boost government’s capacity in public resource utilization.
It consisted of five components. First were IFMIS rollout, interfaces and system training, aiming at increasing the Government capacity to operate and maintain the IFMIS.
The second component of the project was new IFMIS activities; aiming at laying the groundwork for the introduction of new IFMIS applications.
The third component of the project was communications and change management which aims to create awareness amongst government officials and the public about IFMIS, through the implementation of its communication and change management strategy.
The fourth component of the project was accounting and information technology (IT) capacity building for sustainability, aimed at increasing local capacity in IT and accounting services. And the final component was project implementation support.
Since the introduction of IFMIS system, it has supported public financial management in terms of budgeting, accounting and financial reporting, said the PS, MOFEA, Buah Saidy. “In 2013, the government of the Gambia and World Bank undertook the efforts of expanding the system capabilities including the upgrade from the Epicor version 7.3.5 to Epicor 9.0.5 which was characterized by challenges such as the system performance due to the inherent design of the Epicor 9.0.5,”
Saffie Dambelle, project coordinator, said the validation is seen as a self-assessment that will indicate the achievements and challenges that were encountered during the project implementation. “It is a government wide system; IFMIS is in every ministry in this country. It has been implemented since in 2006, among its advantages is, it provides easy access to information, and stores it. In terms of financial report, it has supported physical transparency.”
