Factors Influencing Implementation Of Integrated Financial Management Information System In Sharj (Essay Sample)

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Factors Influencing Implementation of Integrated Financial Management Information
System in Sharj
Introduction
The evolving information and communication technology serve an integral role in fighting financial dishonesty in the public finance systems. Particularly, it endorses higher extensiveness and transparency of data across management institutions. In the recent past, developing, evolving, and post-conflict nations have progressively boarded the resolves to computerize their government operations, fundamentally in regards to public financial management (PFM). The predominant among these climaxes the projects to computerize government accounting as well as payment operations, acquaint with government financial management information systems. Located in the eastern Yemen, Sharj represents a good illustration of the implementation of integrated financial management information system (IFMIS) since the call of sobriety in its accounting system. The major reason Sharj government implemented this projected owes to the outcome of the abundant paybacks predicted from its effective adoption. Nevertheless, several years following the enactment of the project, the system has proved challenging to provide the envisioned benefits of integrated financial planning alongside public expenditure implementation and control system. In the event, the phenomenon has attracted investigations into the dynamics that have prejudiced the slow implementation of the system. This paper offers a widespread analysis of the issues in a bid to document the factors influencing IFMIS within the region of Sharj state.
Understanding IFMIS
Over the past decade, the collected works on IFMIS has addressed numerous aspects of design, sustainability, development systems, and implementation, yet not a single study has synthesized all these elements with exact country experiences to highlight the most appropriate strategies. A financial management information system, United States Agency for International Development (2) describes, denotes an information system that traces the financial activities and reviews financial evidence. In its simplest form, an IFMIS represents an accounting system constituted to function based on the requirements and specifications of the installed environment. The phrase IFMIS denotes the ICT entrenched in the financial operations to help in budget and management resolutions, preparation of financial reports, and fiduciary errands and statements. Within the realms of a government, IFMIS refers to the computerization of the processes of management of public finance, narrowing towards the preparation of budget, accounting and reporting functions. This occurs with the aid of an assimilated management system of finance appropriate for ministries, agencies scheduling expenditure, alongside other operations within the public sector.
An IFMIS system serves to store, organize, and make access to financial information easy. In Sharj, financial management information systems is not a new phenomenon. Antagonistically, it is one of the long-term approaches to recording financial information based on record keeping. The Sharj public administrators have reported a chain of issues, especially since the invention of money. The country’s public administration have long recognized the need to implement the project across the ministries and relevant authorities to conduct its numerous activities in the efficiency of financial management. As it stands out, there are various sources of information all over the government, which promotes duplication of information alongside a conforming mismatch in nature and deficiency of its integration. The buildup of office paperwork from the numerous load of work reduces the efficiency of operations and lack of retrieval of necessary data to offer primary government requirements. As such, the government of Sharj implemented the IFMIS project to strengthen financial control efficiencies by making all-inclusive, reliable, and timely financial material obtainable to the public administrations, such as the parliament, auditor general, and prosecutorial agencies.
Factors Influencing Implementation of IFMIS in Sharj
Impact of Corruption. The methodical assessments in regards to the impact of IFMIS on corruption in the nation remain in its infantry. Conversely, existing literature deliberates that IFMIS presents a preventiverole on fraud subject to its impact on detection. In addition to that, Ahern, Mark, and Beschel writes that IFMIS serves to offer a chain of features that may assist in detecting excessive payments, theft, and fraud (9). For example, the project provides computerized identification of exclusions to regular events, suspicion designs, mechanized cross-referencing of personal identification numbers for detecting scam, and cross-reference of asset records coupled with the purchase of equipment to detect financial burglary, proof of identity of ghost employees, and automated cash disbursement rules. Given the above data, the introduction of IFMIS project in Sharj, as well as its succeeding expansion in the management of records, helped uncover irregularities in personal records of over 1000 civil workers, leading to a 15 percent suspension of subset employees from the payroll. The ability of the project to detect various forms of corruption in the public sector is one of the leading impediments to its implementation in the country. In most developing nations, Sharj for instance, individuals within the public sector expedite data transmission and report production, thus fail to offer a guarantee in recording reliable and complete financial data. In addition, the accelerated comparison of data presented by the project can assist in identification of weaknesses and omissions, in the event, alert public administrators in any suspicious patterns of activities. In regards to this, public administrators in Sharj has made efforts to oppose the implementation of IFMIS as it promptly ensures accountability and transparency within the public sector.
Legal Framework. Designing an IFMIS project for the government requires a critical review of the legal and supervisory frameworks in a bid to assess the required changes to the structure of public financial management. The changing legal frameworks in Sharj has presented an uphill task in the IFMIS systems. Moreover, the attempts to address the legal and regulatory frameworks required for the IFMIS continue to make the project unsustainable and unsuccessful. Sharj’s legislative framework does not offer a comprehensive constitutional, public finance, accounting, and budgetary laws and regulations that are indicative of IFMIS effectiveness. In the process, the country has faced challenges in defining the roles and responsibilities of the ministry of finance, treasury, among other bodies intricate in the management and control of public finances. Sharj has made significant steps in the provisions on the receipt and custody of annual procedures, government funds, proposal, and endorsement of procedures and approximations for disbursement of treasuries. Nonetheless, there are short comes based on accounting forms and procedures required for annual presentation and provisions on asset management. The country has provided limited attention to the statutory review and reporting necessities, including external audits, budgetary publications, and financial reporting into international bodies, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Put simply, the region’s legal and regulatory framework has continued to affect the implementation of IFMIS. Thus, it is imperative to comprehend the country’s legal system and its purposes to institute an IFMIS that responds to both the requirements and adaptability to eventual changes within the legal framework.
Insufficient Technical Skills. In Sharj, the experience of the design and execution of the pilot of the IFMIS project has been less sustaining. Particularly, the current IFMIS design, processes of accountability and existing ordinary budget execution appear to cover a significant portion of the financial automation, regardless of the consideration of an efficient process of harvesting the desired outcome (Karanja and Ng’ang’a 12). Having adopted this route, Sharj government has experienced numerous challenges regarding the complexity, expensive, and sophisticated nature of IFMIS. Considering the perspective of accounting financial reporting, the country of Sharj has failed to address definite concerns touching to the functionality, sustainability, and extension of the system. This issue of complexity coupled with insufficient technical skills in the country has led to problems encountered with the hired public administrators. The overriding issue remains the country’s local capacity, equally continues to present some challenges concerning the functionality of the project, leading to delayed implementation. Similarly, the system’s implementation phase has hardly progressed beyond the primary level for the reason that there is limited involvement as well as neglect of the project by the founding stakeholders, including the accounting general, treasury, and ministry of finance.
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