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IFMAS unused modules incorporated in others
Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, yesterday, said that his Ministry is considering the implementation of the other two Integrated Financial Management and Accounting System (IFMAS) modules. He said that these two will be operationalized when his technicians recommend that is necessary.
Minister of Finance,
Dr. Ashni Singh
At a press conference to address all queries on the IFMAS and why two of the seven modules belonging to the system were not incorporated, Singh explained that the systems currently in place are robust, and as such, the Ministry of Finance is able to generate comprehensive financial statements.
The Minister also stated that the implementation of the systems is not done all at once but in a “phased manner.”
The press conference was held at the National Communications Network.
Kaieteur News had published articles where financial analysts had said that if the two modules responsible for Purchasing, and Inventory/Asset, were in operation, then it would be easy to trace assets.
The Purchasing Module seeks to provide the ability to create purchase requisitions and purchase order with self-creating commitments to reserve the necessary funds (fully integrated with the Appropriations Module currently installed), provide the ability to record the receipts and return of goods and automatically update the purchase order to reflect the transactions among other functions.
The Inventory/Assets Module seeks to provide the ability to create inventory and asset entries when entering a new record based on the requisitions, provide the ability to have automatic stock ordering when the system hits a user-defined reorder point, provide the ability for tracking issues and receipts, provide the ability to enter receipts for deliveries to stores via the Purchasing module, provide the ability to make adjustments to reflect inventory average and shortages, and the ability to provide queries and reports on current inventory, stock activity and receiving reports.
The analysts had said that the Auditor General’s reports highlighted several cases where Ministries were unable to provide evidence to account for assets and millions expended.
But Dr. Singh refuted these claims. He explained that as is the case of smartphones, or a computer, one would not utilize all the features. It was the same with the IFMAS system, provided by FreeBalance.
The Finance Minister said that because of the existing system and the information technology network, the Auditor General has been able to make his pronouncements.
The case of 20 missing vouchers from the Ministry of Education merely represented a case of 20 pieces of paper being missing from thousands. He said that he was not condoning the loss of the vouchers but that it goes to show how efficient the modular system was.
He said that IFMAS was introduced in phases. There were the first four modules and later, the others. Likewise, with the system and its seven modules, the two which are not being used at this time or have not been used for the past ten years, are incorporated in the already existing systems.
It was also stated that the modules currently in use have been customized and upgraded over a period of time. The modules which are currently in place include Controls, Appropriations, General Ledger, Expenditure, Revenue and Treasury Management.
IFMAS was implemented in 2004. It has allowed Government to “remarkably improve its Public Financial Management System and these improvements include tight security controls, improved accountability and enhanced efficient decision making.”
Since the introduction of IFMAS, the Ministry of Finance has provided support in terms of training and advice/guidance to government officers/users of the system.
In addition, the Ministry of Finance in collaboration with the Public Service Ministry continues to facilitate training sessions bi-annually, in an effort to ensure that all users are properly equipped with the knowledge and understanding of IFMAS functionality and the processing of transaction in the software.
IFMAS is now a feature of every Government Ministry and department. To appreciate its impact, one only has to recall the days of voluminous ledgers and the laborious method of preparing reports and analyses, he said.
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