Finance Ministry completes linking public budget to treasury account in November

GFMIS system for all public budget bodies will be completed by the end of March 2018

Closing all bank accounts of the administrative body, cancelling paper checks, and working through electronic payment orders, says El-Garhy
According to the Minister of Finance, Amr El-Garhy, the completion of the Treasury Single Account (TSA)—the governments account at the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE)—will be completed by the end of November 2017.
This aims to cancel all paper checks and close multiple banking accounts of administrative bodies; thus, all transactions will be executed by electronic payment orders.
El-Garhy stressed that the ministry is currently working on the implementation of its plan to automate the state budget in all stages (awareness, processing, training, activation) in parallel to be completed according to the target time programme.
In addition, he pointed out that the electronic connectivity of all the accounting units at all levels of the state budget across the country is being circulated with the banking system of the TSA and the closure of multiple bank accounts to enhance the electronic payment and collection system.
The electronic payment system aims to cancel paper cheques and work through electronic payment orders in the account units deployed at the level of the administrative apparatus of the state under the cooperation protocol between the Ministry of finance and the CBE.
Nevertheless, by the end of this month, 1,800 calculus units will be closed with more than 40,000 accounts out of a total of 2,600 account units with 61,000 accounts at the CBE.
The minister revealed the date of completion of the distribution of the Government Fiscal Management Information System (GFMIS) to all government agencies at the end of March 2018.
The establishment of electronic accountancy system aims to implement the state's general budget to control the government spending, to realise the optimal use of financial resources according to the approved account rules, and to send immediate alerts in the case of non-compliance with payment limits or in that of irregularities across all the state's sectors.
This system will also help speed and achieve accuracy in the preparation of the final accounts of the general state budget and promote the principle of transparency.
He stressed that the new electronic system is a necessity at the present time to support the process of financial and economic reform, which will help reduce the deficit of the state budget and the management of public debt with high efficiency.
In addition to providing accurate financial information for decision-makers at the level of the financial institution in particular or at the state level min general, which helps to maximise resources and good exploitation of public expenditure and to keep up with other countries.
El-Garhy added that the Ministry of Finance is keen on identifying the human cadres across all government sectors that gradually enter the scope of implementation of the system of the TSA and the GFMIS so that electronic programmes would be activated smoothly without no obstacles.
He explained that the Egyptian Tax Authority (ETA) was the first authority in the state to link the system of automating the management of the state budget and linking it to the electronic payment system at the expense of the unified treasury of the CBE to achieve more control over the expenditure of state resources as of this August.