By: Bakary Touray Jr
A five-day regional Public Financial Management course on Debt Budgeting, Planning and Performance, is underway in the West African state of The Gambia.
Organised by the West African Institute for Economic Management, in short WAIFEM, the course- (from March 9-13, 2020)- is designed to, among other things, focus on the expenditure side of public financial management, and also look at budgeting, accountability and the changes in financial management.
The Director General of WAIFEM, Dr. Baba Y. Musa, reminded that the institute was established in 1996, and has since executed 756 courses, which had benefited 20,260 participants from the founding member states.
The WAIFEM boss reported that the Institute was restructured in 2019 in Guinea Conakry, “to address emerging capacity building challenges in the region, such as leadership and governance, regional integration reserves management, emerging financial architecture”.
The training, as DG Musa told the audience, would equip the participants with the knowledge on the importance of public financial management in macroeconomic analysis and management, as well as identify the linkages, between the components of PFM systems and improved economic and fiscal performance.
Upon the completion of the course, the participants are expected to recognize and design tools for effective management of fiscal risks, components of fiscal transparency, reliable fiscal reports and the importance of internal and external audits, remarked DG Musa.
Second Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of The Gambia, Mr. Essa Drammeh, said fiscal balance is an important driver of key macroeconomic variables, that is of great significance to Central Bankers, as such is at the center of the their activities.
He intimated that effective public financial management institutions, underpins fiscal and macroeconomic stability, as they guide the allocation of sacred public resources to national priorities, as well support the efficient delivery of services for poverty reduction and economic development.
The Second Deputy head of the country’s apex bank continued: “2008-2009 global financial crises and its impact on low-income countries have reinforced the importance of budgetary institutions in our countries, although, in reaction to the crisis, policy makers across different regions responded to the crisis with numerous counter-cynical policies.”
Drammeh cited information scarcity in Ministries, Departments and Agencies, as the challenges of the modern budgeting and planning, which hampers effective budgeting, public sector, policy-making institutions, proper budget implementation, as well as inadequate monitoring of mechanism.
