The government is planning to implement an ambitious central accounting system which will provide information about financial management of all government agencies on a single platform.

The Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) secretariat has been mulling to establish a computerised Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) as part of a public finance management reform initiative.

The IFMIS is a fully integrated system that allows each expense of all government agencies to be traced through one window, radically improving public finance management in the country. For example, information about expenditure made by the Department of Roads and the revenue collected by the Inland Revenue Department will be disseminated via the same platform.   

The PEFA secretariat initiated a study for the launch of the IFMIS, said Member Secretary Murari Niraula at an interaction programme jointly organised by the PEFA and the Society of Economic Journalists of Nepal.

The secretariat has prepared the terms of reference (ToR) on the basis of which a detailed study on implementing the IFMIS will be conducted.

“We have already sent the ToR to the World Bank, the partner organisation under whose leadership the PEFA framework was launched in Nepal in 2001,” said Niraula. “The World Bank will send back the ToR to us with its recommendations.”

The PEFA secretariat will then initiate the procurement process to hire international consultants to prepare a detailed study report to implement the IFMIS. “We are expecting to complete it within a year,” said Niraula.

Based on the detailed study report, the modality for the development of the IFMIS will be determined. “Once the modality is finalised, information technology companies will be hired to prepare the IFMIS which will be developed by integrating multiple software,” said Niraula. “It might take three to four years to launch the IFMIS.”