Ministry Undertakes Reforms to Public Financial Management

Ministry Undertakes Reforms to Public Financial Management System

In the presentation of the new Public Financial Management Act to Parliament for its second reading yesterday, the Minister of Finance and Treasury, Honourable Rick Hou outlined the key public financial management reforms currently undertaken in the Ministry, which will enable the effective administration of the Act.

The Minister highlighted to the House that the Ministry of Finance has carefully considered the institutional and capacity implications in implementing the new legislation and with the support of key development partners, the Ministry is working on mapping out an implementation strategy for the next 12 to 18 months. The Minister stressed that the implementation will essentially be pursued through the learning-by-doing approach.

To that end, Honourable Rick Hou clarified, “the implementation of the Act will basically build on the existing public financial management reforms on an incremental basis, and this is currently spearheaded by the Ministry of Finance. These include the many facets of the PFM reform program which ranges from the systems and technology, business processes, rules and regulations, and most importantly the human resource capacity.”

Honourable Hou added, “most of these reform phases which are currently underway in the Ministry of Finance are at varying stages of progress. The pace and sequence of the phases to follow will be driven by the capacity and resources the Solomon Islands Government can muster, and the achievements of key phases as the Ministry progresses along the planned timeline.”

Furthermore, Honourable Hou stated, “The Act will be complemented by a raft of changes to the subsidiary instruments such as regulations, instructions, and manuals. In line with these changes, the Ministry was also reviewing their training capability so that the training programs and modules can be rolled out in the next 6 to 18 months to support the implementation of the new Act.”

ENDS

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