A Financial Management Information System (FMIS) portal for sub-national administrative officials was launched yesterday at the Finance Ministry to improve accountability, efficiency, effectiveness and modernisation in financial management.
Finance Minister Aun Pornmoniroth announced the launch of the Financial Management Information System (FMIS) in a ceremony attended by finance, district and commune officials. Officials will get training on using the portal to communicate with provincial treasury departments in sending and receiving finance documents.
Pornmoniroth said the digital document portal was launched for administrative officials at 75 districts and 185 communes in the first phase. The operations will be expanded nationwide to reform the government’s public financial management system in the context of Industry 4.0 for economic development.
“This system will make it easier to implement district and commune budgets because currently, they need to spend a lot of time sending paper documents to provincial treasury departments. In case of errors or faults, those documents will be returned and then taken back for correction,” Pornmoniroth said.
Hean Sahib, MEF secretary of state, who led the development of the system, said MFIS Portal had been developed from the second semester of 2021 until the first semester of this year, along with tests on quality and safety.
Sahib explained that the system would enable district, commune and provincial treasury officials to communicate with one another directly by sending and receiving voice mails, videos, photos and files. They can securely load data with notifications in case of revision, review or approval of requests with recording date and time of transactions.
Nhem Phara, deputy governor of Peam Chor district in Prey Veng province, who attended the launching ceremony online, said that her subordinates earlier used to send financial documents to the treasury in the province through paper documents. Phara pointed out that internet coverage would be the main challenge for the commune to use the FMIF portal, especially those in remote areas.
“For young officials, it would be fine, but I think in the short term, it would be a bit difficult for officials who have little knowledge of technology,” Phara told Khmer Times.
Nhem Sreyna, vice chief of administration and finance at Peam Chor district office, who is responsible for financial communication with the provincial treasury, said that she received training on how to use the system in scanning documents and operating tools and functions of the portal last week.
“For example, after I prepare a list of official salaries with paper and invoices for expenses, I need to take them to the provincial treasury. Sometimes documents were damaged due to rainfall. It is very risky,” Sreyna told Khmer Times, who needs to travel about 60 kilometres from her office to the provincial treasury.
“If there is an error or fault, I need to bring back to correct it and then take it back again, but now with using this system, we prepare documents carefully, get a signature and stamp from the governor, and scan and send them to the treasury. If there is any error, the system will give a red light. A green light would appear if it is ok,” Sreyna added.
In late April, Delphine Moretti, public finance management advisor in Southeast Asia of International Monetary Fund (MFI) said FMIS system is a very important catalyst to expedite the implementation of public finance reform programmes and strengthening enforcement of financial system laws in Cambodia.
This article was first published in Khmer Times. All contents and images are copyright to their respective owners and sources.
