Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait affirmed on Saturday that his ministry is continuing to strengthen the financial governance of the country to achieve financial, economic, and development goals in a way that enables the government to increase expenditures. These expenditures target improving the standard of living of citizens and improving the quality of public services by maximising efforts to lay the foundations for financial discipline, raising the efficiency of public spending, and tightening control over disbursement through the government financial information system (GFMIS) and the electronic payment system (GPS). This is especially relevant to the new provisions contained in the Unified Public Finance Law that reflects the philosophy of financial performance based on automated systems in accordance with international best practices. Maait added that the electronic management of the state's general budget during the current FY contributed to providing accurate real-time data on the performance of implementing all budgets of bodies and units affiliated with each minister, governor, or university president, noting that the final accounts of the budget ending in the same year will be closed at the end of the FY on 30 June. This leads to controlling financial performance and enabling budgetary authorities to fulfil the requirements of their approved activities and plans in accordance with the specific financial allocations, which helps in raising the level of services and facilitating the means of providing them to citizens in various sectors. He indicated that the final accounts of budgetary bodies and public economic bodies will be prepared and checked electronically through the GFMIS and GPS systems, stressing the need to submit the final accounts to the ministry and the Central Auditing Organisation no later than the end of July. This is so that the observations of the accounts sector are implemented in the final accounts and the Central Auditing Organisation includes in its reports the results of the examination of the preliminary final accounts in mid-September. He added that there is no room for any amendment adjustments after this date. Maait also directed his ministry to enhance cooperation with the Central Auditing Organisation, which contributes to laying the foundations of governance and control over the disbursement of the approved appropriations in the state's general budget in a manner that helps in establishing the pillars of financial and administrative discipline to maximise the use of the accurate database available in the government's financial information systems and ensures the speed, accuracy, and quality of performance, as per the state's efforts to digitise. For his part, Kamel Kamal — Head of the Final Accounts Sector — called on the budgetary authorities and economic authorities to quickly collect the overdue dues to the state's public treasury and to work continuously to maximise public revenue collection efforts to reach the targeted budget figures. This will help improve financial performance indicators, especially the deficit and debt rates of the GDP.
