EDITORIAL

Automation In 55 Fiscal Agencies

President Benigno S. Aquino III has ordered the Commission on Audit (COA), the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the Department of Finance (DoF) to automate their financial management systems in order to improve financial control and accountability on public funds.

According to Executive Secretary Paquito N. Ochoa Jr., Executive Order No. 55, President Aquino signed recently aims to direct the integration and automation of all government financial management systems to make them more effective.

"This directive reflects the importance the President accords to promoting transparency, accountability and good governance: The creation of a government integrated financial management information systems (GIFMIS) provides a more transparent and effective way of monitoring the disbursement and appropriation of public funds," Ochoa explained.

"This integrated system will allow greater financial management and control at the oversight and agency levels, ensure stricter compliance of the budget to appropriation laws, improve Treasury cash management, and facilitate keeping of general accounts of government and management reporting at various levels of government," Ochoa pointed out.

The creation of the GIFMIS paves way for the generation of vital information on any and all aspects of government financial transaction which can be made accessible to the public through the internet.

A memorandum of agreement (MOA) was entered into by and among the key oversight agencies of the government namely, the COA, DBM, DoF and the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr), which created the Steering Committee on Cooperation to Foster the Development of the GIFMIS and to implement the Public Financial Management (PFM) Reforms Roadmap.

"The PFM Committee has been directed to devise a five-year plan for the development and implementation of an integrated financial management information system that links national government agencies with the COA, DBM and BTr to enable the generation of comprehensive, accurate, reliable and timely consolidated financial status reports for the oversight and the implementing agencies," Ochoa said.
The presidential issuance, according to Ochoa, also tasks the PFM team to achieve within the term of the current administration the completion and installation of the following:

• a GIFMIS which shall enable real-time, online accounting, monitoring and control of obligations and disbursements and their direct links to cash management;

• a Treasury Single Account (TSA) that provides BTr a more effective way of cash management and rationalizing agency bank accounts;

• an efficient budget release system with predictable and streamlined allotment and cash release programs throughout the year to support the operations of implementing agencies based on reliable cash forecasting and programming by DBM and BTr;

• regular in-year reporting system on the status of budget execution and timely year-end audit reporting of agency financial and physical operations, which will be used in the budget preparation process, the Congressional debate on agency budgets and performance, and the public’s participation in the budget process; and

• systematic recording and reporting of all liabilities of government entities, including real and contingent liabilities, to enable the national government to manage its financial exposure. /MP