Finance ministry holds second technical committee meeting
Freetown, May 20 (SLENA) – The Public Financial Management Reform Unit in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MoFED)last Wednesday held its Second Quarterly Public Financial Management Technical Committee meeting at the Ministry’s Conference Room in Freetown.
In his opening remarks, the Director of Public Financial Management Reform Unit (PFMRU), Augustus Cole, said the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) methodology is not a new phenomenon and that the PEFA session has been long done, stating that they have done various draft reports which as a Government has been circulated and commented upon.
He went on to say that they had held several meetings during which various stakeholders had the opportunity of giving their comments, saying they have got the final report of the consultants.
Mr. Cole further thanked the local consultant, Buffy Bailor for being part of the meeting to give an overview of what the results are and assured the meeting that they would have the opportunity to have a bigger picture of what the exercise was all about and the outcome of that particular exercise.
He stated that during the presentation, it would be much easier for the technical committee members to see some of the issues that emanated from the exercise which they might need to focus on over the next few years in addressing the challenges facing Public Financial management, especially in the central government.
Earlier, the Principal Deputy Financial Secretary (PDFS), Avril Cummings and the Senior Deputy Financial Secretary (SDFS), Matilda Williams who also chaired the meeting, welcomed members of the PFM Technical Committee to the meeting.
It should be noted that the Public Financial Management ([PFM) Performance Assessment Report is based on the PEFA PFM Performance Measurement Framework (revised in 2011), which includes a performance ratings on 31 indicators covering the entire PFM cycle in the central government of Sierra Leone and assesses impact on budget goals.
The work was jointly led by the Multi-Donor Budget support partners, comprising UK Department for International Development, World Bank, European Commission, African Development Bank and the Government of Sierra Leone.
A team of consultants was contracted to carry out the detailed technical work for the study. The team assessed the current situation by reviewing back ground documents, collecting necessary data and interviewing key government and development partner officials during January and February 2014. The final report draws on comments from GOSL, DFID, AFDB and the PEFA Secretariat on the earlier draft version of this report.
In his presentation of the Sierra Leone Public Expenditure Financial Accountability (PEFA) Assessment Report 2014, the PEFA local consultant, Buffy Bailor, stated that the PEFA report has been reviewed by key stakeholders of the government, donor partners and the PEFA Secretariat and has been finalized.
He added that the PEFA exercise gives a snap shot of government PFM issues so that improvements can be made in areas of weaknesses in the PFM system as highlighted by the scoring. He cautioned that Government officials should not take the process as criticism rather to see it as a way to improve the whole PFM process which contributes to sound fiscal discipline, strategic allocation of resources and efficiency in service delivery. The presentation was followed by questions and answers session.
During the meeting, discussion relating to the effective condition for the commencement of the new PFM Reform Project that will succeed the current Integrated Public Financial Management Reform Project came up.
The Director of PFM Reform informed the committee members that the government has requested for an extension of the deadline of 120 days from the date of signing the financing agreement with the development partners.
Donor partners also made meaningful contributions.
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