State Institutions Asked to Apply Gifmis for Financial Transactions

By Jonathan Donkor

THE new acting Controller and Accountant General, Mr Kwasi Kwaning-Bosompem, has asked state institutions to strictly use the Ghana Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) for all their financial transactions, or be sanctioned.

Addressing staff of the department at his maiden staff durbar in Accra on Friday, he stated that "failure to comply with this government directive (of using the GIFMIS) will mean you will not be able to access your funds".

GIFMIS is an integrated computerised financial management system that facilitates budget preparation and execution, accounting and financial reporting, cash management, assets management, human resource and payroll management.

Introduced in 2012, the system is meant to replace all stand-alone legacy financial management systems at the Ministries, Departments, Agencies (MDAs), the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), statutory and international generated fund institutions.

According to Mr Kwaning-Bosompem, the GIFMIS was one of the ongoing reforms and initiatives in the sector that he was keen would continue to improve and sanitise public financial management in the country.

Other reforms of interest, he said, included the Electronic Salary Payment Voucher, the Treasury Single Account, integration of the eight public universities payrolls onto the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Database (IPPD) and the seamless integration of payroll cost on the GIFMIS.

" Collectively and individually, these initiatives have come a long way in ensuring that issues to do with wanton corruption in the public sector, ghost names in the government payroll and other malpractices have been brought down significantly", Mr Kwaning-Bosompem said.

He said that effective financial reporting for national accountability had become pertinent, following extreme public interest, in public finances for which reason financial controllers should be more vigilant in their duties.

To ensure efficiency amongst staff, Mr Kwaning-Bosompem said management would ensure that logistics, including vehicles were provided for the headquarters and regions especially the newly created ones.

Staff welfare, including promotions and capacity building, he stated would be a core concern adding that efforts would be made to end the suit by Civil and Local Government Staff Association of Ghana (CLOGSAG) to pave the way for staff progression.

Mr Kwaning-Bosompem said he was expecting an optimum teamwork, intergrity, performance and punctuality from the staff to move achievement of his predecessors to a higher pedestal and effectively lead the national crusade for rapid economic transformation.

The Chief Director of the office of the Head of Civil Service, Mr Joseph Brock, pledged the office's support for the new head, and charged the staff to give him their maximum cooperation for collective benefit.

With nearly three decades of professional experience, Mr Kwaning-Bosompem, formerly the Deputy Comptroller General in charge of payroll is the 13th head of the department.

He assumed work on May 2, 2019, replacing Mr Eugene Asante Ofusuhene, whose two-year contract of service ended on April 30, 2019.

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