Government vows crack-down on wasteful public spending   

The Finance Minister, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, has underlined the government’s unswerving resolve to go the extra mile to prevent wasteful public spending.
  
It would do everything to crackdown on corruption and eliminate waste in the management of financial resources.
  
He said this in an address read for him at a day’s forum on the implementation of the Ghana Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) held at Akyawkrom in the Ejisu-Juaben Municipality.
  
GIFMIS is an ICT-based public financial management information system across the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs).
  
The forum, organized by the Finance Ministry in collaboration with the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department brought together Municipal and District Chief Executives, Coordinating Directors, Budget Officers, Finance Officers and Internal Auditors from the Eastern, Ashanti and Brong-Ahafo Regions.   .
  
The goal was to deepen stakeholder engagement on the roadmap and other key activities for smooth implementation of the project, which seeks to promote transparency and efficiency in the management of public finances.
  
Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta indicated that GIFMIS was going to replace the “all stand-alone” legacy financial management systems at the MDAs and MMDAs.
  
This, he said, tied in with the government’s effort to create a more business-friendly environment and invariably harness better opportunities for the people through improved fiscal discipline.
   
He added that they were eager to make sure that targets set out in the public financial management strategy were not missed.
   
Mr. Eugene Ofosuhene, the Controller and Accountant-General, noted that prudent management of public funds was vital to efficient service delivery to the people.
   
Dr. Nana Ato Arthur, Head of Local Government Service, reminded participants that the success of the project would largely depend on their commitment and asked them to embrace it.

Source: GNA