The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori- Atta says his government has been the most transparent in implementing the Public Financial Management (PFM) Act.
The PFM Act 921 was passed in 2016 to regulate the financial management of the public sector within a macroeconomic and fiscal framework by setting up stringent accounting, audit, and reporting requirements for public funds.
According to him, since the passage of the Act, the government has been the most accountable by ensuring that the law is enforced to prevent the accumulation of arrears.
“As the first Finance Minister to oversee the implementation of this critical law, I can confidently say that this Government has been the most transparent and accountable in our history. Over the past seven years, I have laid before this House, 55 statutory reports to fulfill the provisions of this law,” he said on the floor of Parliament during the 2024 budget presentation.
He explained that the government did so by laying before the house, the annual report on the Petroleum Funds and the report on the utilisation of the African Union Levies.
In the coming year, he said the government will align quarterly budget allotments with cash flow forecast and tighten the use of allocations as a control on the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) rather than the budget starting with the 2024 budget.
Also, Mr Ofori-Atta said MDAs will be required to revise their cash plans on a quarterly basis to reflect the allotments received over the year and remaining requirements.
Further, he said contracts for public works will be standardised to ensure flexibility in budget execution and also there will be a review standard tender documents to include clauses that make the award of the contract null and void if not supported by GIFMIS generated purchase order.
[embedded content]Again, the Finance Minister said all Metropolitan, Municipal And District Assemblies (MDAs) will be required to use the Ghana Electronic Procurement System (GHANEPS) for all Procurements to enhance transparency and efficiency in the procurement of goods, works, consultancy, non-consultancy, and asset disposal.
Meanwhile, he said that his outfit was committed to ensuring that these measures are followed, in that regard, a Compliance Desk has been established as part of the internal audit function of the Ministry.
The desk will closely track the tender advertisements from Covered Entities to ensure that they have allotment and are on the GHANEPS adding that “in the event that covered entities are not compliant, the desk will immediately seek explanation and refer such infractions under the PFM to the Attorney-General through the Legal Directorate of the Ministry for advice or penal actions.”
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