New IT system to streamline public financial management

Sri Lanka’s public financial management is to be streamlined by making necessary changes to the Finance Ministry’s IT infrastructure soon, official sources said.

This programme envisages the establishment of a financial commitment record and control system to make accurate estimates and streamline the financial management avoiding the recurrence of arrears and negative impact on the revenue estimates, officials said.

Although commitments have been recorded up to June 2016, creation of a system that can produce quarterly financial reports and commitment ceilings has been delayed until December as more time is needed to make the necessary changes to the IT infrastructure, a senior Treasury official told the Business Times.

The pilot rollout of the new IT system (ITMIS) with an automatic commitment control module, at the Finance Ministry will take place next month, he disclosed.

The ministry will be presenting the quarterly expenditure and income outcomes to Parliament within one month at the end of any quarter in order to uphold the Parliamentary control of public finance.

The new IT system will facilitate this process, he said adding that any possible revenue shortfalls will warrant the Treasury to realign the expenditure with the parliamentary approval.

Meanwhile tax administration reforms centered on VAT, including adoption of a risk-based VAT compliance strategy, have been delayed due to the suspension of the VAT amendments, but rescheduled for completion by December this year.

The full rollout of the new revenue administration IT system (RAMIS) is expected by December as originally planned. These will improve tax collection and increase the revenue impact of new tax policy measures, including the VAT and the new IRA, officials said.

The pilot rollout of the new IT system (ITMIS) with an automatic commitment control module, at the Finance Ministry will take place next month, he disclosed. The ministry will be presenting the quarterly expenditure and income outcomes to Parliament within one month at the end of any quarter in order to uphold the Parliamentary control of public finance.