By George M.O. Williams
The Ministry of Finance with support from the European Union (EU) on Tuesday, July 5, 2022, launched the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) and Gender Responsive Public Financial Management (PFM) Assessment 2021 Report in Freetown.
The assessment which has been funded by the European Union, seeks to provide the Government of Sierra Leone with an objective, indicator-led assessment of national PFM system, including gender responsive dimension to promote an updated understanding of the overall fiduciary environment of the PFM systems.
PEFA is a tool that helps governments achieve sustainable improvements in PFM practices by providing a means to measure and monitor performance against a set of indicators across the range of important public financial management institutions, systems, and processes.
The Deputy Minister of Finance 1, Sheku F. Bangura said that the PEFA framework includes a report that provides an overview of the PEM system and evidence-based measurement against 31 performance indicators, adding that it also provides an assessment of the implications for overall system performance and desirable public financial management outcomes.
“Sierra Leone has conducted five external PEFA assessments in the past decade. Assessments were undertaken in 2007, 2010, 2014, 2017 and now 2021, all these assessments looked at PF
performances of the Central Government with the exception of 2010 which looked at PFM practices in five (5) Local Councils out of nineteen (19) Local Councils during that time,” Bangura said.
He added that these reform programs had resulted in improving PFM performances over the years including the development of key legal and regulatory reforms, Implementing the Treasury Single Account, improving payroll managements, implementation of the Integrated Tax Administration System and other revenue reforms, effective Cash Management, improving the Sustainability and Transparency of Public Debt, strengthening oversight bodies, among others.
Bangura noted that with in connection to the gender responsive PFM, Government has taken major steps in consider gender issues in its program, adding that it has laid the foundation for gender issues to take root, among which, he said, the legal regulatory framework has been set which include the enactment of several laws, development of key policies.
Head of Development Cooperation, European Union, , Gerald Hatler said that sound PFM systems are critical for the efficient mobilization and use of scarce public resources, adding that it also constitutes a key factor for implementing the national development policies and for improving public service delivery.
“Besides, transparency and accountability of PFM systems is an important pillar of the ‘social pact’ between the authorities and the society. In a well- functioning democracy, it is critical that economic actors and citizens trust the authorities when they are collecting revenue, instructing expenditures or managing public assets. The current context of tight fiscal space and tensions in the international markets can only exacerbate the need for efficient,” Hatler said.
He also recalled that tangible progress has been achieved since the last PEFA in 2018, in areas of contingent liabilities and fiscal risks, payroll controls, fiscal forecasts, procurement and revenue administration.
“However, significant challenges remain in other areas such as budget execution, the public investment management or external scrutiny and audit. Overall, there is still room for improvement in budget reliability, fiscal discipline and strategic critical magnitude of extra-budgetary funds, public allocation of resources,” Hatler said.
