MoFED wraps up pre-appraisal mission
The Public Financial Management Reform Unit in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development {MoFED} has on Wednesday 31st July 2013 held a wrap up meeting with the Pre-Appraisal Mission Team from the World Bank, DFID, AFDB and European Union who were in Sierra Leone from July 18th – 31st, 2013 to prepare and pre-appraise the proposed Sierra Leone PFM Improvement and Consolidation {PFMIC} Project. According to report, part of the mission’s objective has been to reach an agreement on the project’s scope and initiative costs attributable to the implementation of the component, subcomponents and related activities, the implementation and institutional arrangements, initial performance monitoring indicators, and other aspects that caters to the need for a simplified design of the proposed project. The mission introduced the objectives of the pre-appraisal as responding to the GoSL’s request to the development partners to support the Government in financing the cost of implementing its approved PFM Reform Strategy 2014-2017. It should be noted that the PFM Improvement and Consolidation Project and its consistency is not only with the Government’s pillar 7- Governance and Public Sector Reform’ of the Agenda for prosperity2013-2018. In consolidating the achievements of the IPFMRP ( which closes in march 2014], the response of the development partners is directed to supporting the implementation of a holistic program of actions in the second generation of reforms across the entire PFM cycle – from budgetary planning to external and public oversight. The proposed intervention will focus on core areas defined in the Agenda for Prosperity including: Capacity building of state and Non- state institutions and actors; intra- and inter- MDA coordination and partnership; delivery of quality, timely services in an accountable and transparent manner; and political governance, including decentralization and local government transformation.
In this phase of the PFM reform agenda, the development partners will in effect, be responding to the government’s agenda that is aimed at strengthening the institutional and human resource capacity as well as the systems necessary for the delivery of effective public financial management and oversight: expanding and deepening the scope of reforms in support of improved service delivery; and strengthening the foundation already established for improved public financial management across government under the IPFMRP and complementarily under other development partner program support activities. Deepening of PFM reforms in support of promoting good economic governance is also consistent with the World Bank’s governance and anti-corruption agenda, which forms the foundation for the renewed strategy for Africa. In addition, the project, which falls under the Bank’s and other development partners’ governance and public sector capacity theme, fits well under the IDA 16 policy framework for fragile states.
The mission and the GoSL agreed that the relevance of deepening PFM reforms cannot be overemphasized for a country like Sierra Leone which is progressively emerging from post- conflict fragile status. The Minister echoed his appreciation of the timely response to their request for this support and seeks the indulgence of the development partners to re- affirm their commitment to strongly supporting project implementation through timely reactions to implementation needs. The mission and the GoSL agreed to the formulation of the project development objective {PDO] as: “to improve budget planning and credibility, financial control, accountability and oversight in government finances in Sierra Leone’ since this is consistent with the overall theme and objective pursuit of the GoSL as defined in both the PFM Reform Strategy and the Agenda for prosperity. It is expected that the interventions to be considered will help to strengthen the institutional and human resource capacity for the delivery of effective PFM and oversight, and that the project will contribute to enhancing fiscal discipline , strategic allocation of resources and service delivery efficiency.
In his remarks, the Director of Public Financial Management Reform Unit in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development,Augustus Cole, said they are gathered during the wrap up meeting to discuss the findings of the Pre-Appraisal Mission for the new PFM project that is being developed, in response to the recently approved PFM Reform Strategy. He added that the development partners {DFID, World Bank, ADB and EU} started the mission some two weeks back and indicated that they met with several stakeholders of the particular process and had documented their findings in the Draft Aid Memoir. He pointed out that the purpose of the wrap up meetings to present the Draft Aid Memoir to the stakeholders while admonishing them to offer suggestions after the Aid Memoir is presented to them.
The Financial Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development in his statement thanked the task team leader for the tremendous effort of the mission and welcomed the Task Team Leader to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development. He informed all and sundry that officials of the Ministry have gone through the Aid Memoir, noting that they have to learn from the first project {The IPFMRP} and be in position to assess themselves about what has been missing, what is required and what they need to add on to achieve the value added for financial management improvement in Sierra Leone.
Hawanatu Bockari, SLENA/Mofed
Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!
© 2013, https:. All rights reserved.
