Reconstituted Public Financial Management Oversight Committee holds inaugural meeting
The objective of the PFM reforms in Sierra Leone is to support the achievement of fiscal discipline, strategic and efficient allocation and use of funds, value for money and probity in the use of public funds.
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| Director PFM Reform Unit, Augustus Cole (c) addresses the meeting |
Over the years, the Government of Sierra Leone has been taking steps to improve its financial management practices, based on various diagnostic studies. Such studies include the Country Financial Accountability Assessment (CFFA), HIPC-AAP and EU audit which resulted in a matrix of corrective measures to be undertaken by the Government to improve on weak PFM areas over time.
These were consolidated into a common action plan (CAP) and an Oversight Committee was formed to monitor its implementation. The secretariat for this PFM Oversight Committee is now managed by the Public Financial Management Reform Unit, Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, with new terms of reference for the committee itself and the subcommittees providing technical and advisory services.
The inaugural meeting of the reconstituted Public Financial Management (PFM) Oversight Committee was held on Thursday the 22nd of October 2009, at the Conference Room of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MOFED).
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| The meeting in progress |
The main focus of the meeting was to provide an update on the status of the Integrated Public Financial Management Reform Project (IPFMRP). Taking steps on the way forward, the Government of Sierra Leone and the International Development Association (IDA) signed a grant and financing agreement for funding from the World Bank, DfID, and EC for the Integrated Public Financial Management Project (IPFMRP) on Monday 19th October 2009. The IPFMRP is further supported by the African Development Bank (AfDB) through its counterpart funding to the Government of Sierra Leone. The IMFMR Project is designed in a bid to ensure sustainable improvement in the credibility and predictability, control and transparency of fiscal and budget management.
Discussions at the meeting centered on an update on the implementation status of the IPFMRP, and the approval of the project’s proposed annual work plan for 2010.
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| Task team leader of the IPFMRP, Vivek Strivastava |
The Director of the PFM Reform Unit, Augustus Cole, highlighted the effectiveness conditions that were being met for the implementation of the project. He also stressed the importance of the results framework and monitoring aspect of the project appraisal document as he said it was the yardstick that will be used to measure the success of the IPFMRP.
The meeting was chaired by the Financial Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Edmund Koroma and attended by members of the PFM Oversight Committee, observers from Development Partner Institutions and the Task Team Leader of the IPFMRP, Vivek Strivastava.
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