One of the critical challenges being faced by the World Bank (WB) in project/programme implementation in Pakistan is weakness in accounting and auditing process, which delays projects and results in cost escalation.
This was stated by Country Director World Bank Patchamuthu Illangovan while addressing the launch of pilot phase of the 'Public Financial Management - Professional Accreditation Programme' for government officials of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces here on Thursday.
The provinces of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan Thursday launched Public Financial Management - Professional Accreditation Programme, bringing the whole financial decision-making, accounting and auditing in confirmatory with the challenges of the day and synchronising the whole system with the global economy.
"Improved revenue collection and effective public investment management will expand fiscal space of the federal and provincial governments to deliver efficient public services to millions of citizens," said Illangovan, adding that the Bank is supporting governments of KP and Balochistan in strengthening skills for better public financial management.
He further said there was a need to have trained manpower workforce in accounting profession. There is also need to move towards digitisation as accounting profession worldwide has embraced digital technology. The WB official said that the government needs to invest in primary education.
"In the World Banks programmes and projects that we are implementing in this country, one of the many critical challenges we face is accounting and auditing weaknesses which often delay project implementation and when project implementation is delayed, it results in project coat escalation," WB official added.
Minister of Finance Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Taimur Saleem Khan Jhagra said that strong financial management capacity is critical for efficient utilisation of resources for better delivery of cost-effective services to the public. "Today's launch of this programme reflects our governments' resolve to support skill building among our staff and we are grateful to our development partners for this initiative," he added.
Jhagra underscored the need for improving officials' performance in public financial management, budgeting, accounting and auditing sectors. The finance minister said the officials in the government sectors would have to work hard to increase their competence in the financial management matters to improve the level of good governance and eliminate corruption.
He said the KP government was utilising all available resources to ensure transparency in financial matters. The PTI government would set up better governance in the province through its reforms agenda, he added. He further pointed out that the KP government has increased the retirement age limit for government officials which would generate Rs 100 billion in next three years. He rejected the notion that by this decision jobs for youth would be squeezed, and said that it would create more jobs by investing the saved money.
Auditor General of Pakistan Javed Jehangir said that fiscal deficit is major challenge to Pakistan and this issue will be resolved by the finance managers, audits and account professionals to steer out the country from these crises.
"Currently the country and economy are facing different types of challenges and we need a very trained and knowledgeable workforce and human capital to steer the country out of these challenges," the AGP added.
He further said that the biggest challenge is the fiscal deficit that needs to be addressed. The Public Financial Management (PFM) law demands that the workforce working in the area of financial management sector should be knowledgeable, skilled and trained up to the mark, so that it could come up to reasonable solutions and ideas to tackle various economic and financial problems in the public sector, Jehangir added.
He further said there is a dire need in the executive departments to improve their financial management skills because audit issues, which are reflected in auditors' reports annually, depict lack of financial management skills.
The financial management issues which are discussed in audit reports for the last 20 years are of repetitive nature like weak financial management, lack of internal control, and non-compliance to rules and regulations.
He further said that the quantum of funds and amounts under these issues are rising. As a result of compliance, there would be more transparency and less chances of misuse of funds with better service delivery and governance, he added.
The AGP further said that the PFM programme will help support the public sector finance manager to interact with new concept and international best practices in the public finances.
The programme will equip government officials with appropriate skills to manage public expenditure. The programme covers topics such as budgeting, accounting, project management, cash management, procurement, debt management, performance management, auditing, public private partnerships and reforms.
Participants who successfully complete the three levels of the programme will receive a certificate in public sector financial management, diploma in public sector financial management, and advanced diploma in public sector financial management issued by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.
The programme is a joint initiative of the provincial governments of Balochistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and the World Bank, under the Governance and Policy Programme, financed by the governments of Australia, Denmark, the European Union, Finland, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United States of America.
The programme has been developed in partnership with the finance departments of the two provinces, Auditor General of Pakistan, Controller General of Accounts, national and international experts from local universities, and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. The Pakistan Audit and Accounts Academy will deliver the training to the first cohort of 30 government officials during the three-week residential course which starts on July 15, 2019, in Lahore.
The programme has been chalked out by learning from the experiences of the last over 70 years, the continuous annual audit reports, three-years of constant and in-depth consultations, discussions with stakeholders right from the chief secretaries to the senior officers of finance, revenue, accounts and audit departments as well as the drawing and disbursing officers (DDOs) at the grassroots level in both province.