KAMPALA – The Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) Compliance index for FY 2016/17 was launched on Monday June 8, 2020 at the Ministry of Finance by the Permanent Secretary/ Secretary to the Treasury Keith Muhakanizi and Representatives of Development Partners and Civil Society.
The performance parameters assessed cover the eight parts of the PFMA 2015 and these are:(i) Macro-economic and Fiscal policies,(2) Budget preparation, approval and management,(3) The Contingencies Fund,(4) Cash and Assets,(5)Public debt, grants and guarantees,(6) Accounting and Audit,(7) Petroleum revenue management,(8) Other provisions of the PFMA.
According to the report, strong performance was anchored by robust compliance with PFMA in areas of Charter of Fiscal Responsibility, Reporting on Fiscal Performance, Budget Preparation, Financial reporting and management of the consolidated fund.
Areas that did not perform so well include: Operationalization of the Petroleum Investment reserve, budget execution by accounting officers, contingencies fund not being fully funded, management of non-tax revenues and asset management.
Muhakanizi said Government welcomes the initiative by the Civil Society organisations of Uganda to monitor the implementation of the PFMA, 2015 and publish the annual report now referred to as the Public Finance Management Compliance Index.
” These are very pertinent areas that must be urgently and firmly addressed,” said PS/ST.
He said some of the measures already undertaken to address low performance include: Establishing the Petroleum investment committee, roll out of the treasury single account to all central government ministries and local governments and enhancement of IFMS expenditure approval hierarchy to include heads of department.
Other measures include: changes in the management of non-tax revenue in both central and local governments, asset management reforms and operationalization of the contingencies fund.
