The Deputy Secretary to the Treasury Ocailap engages technical officers on the revised guidelines for the issuance of financial clearance
Drake Nyamugabwa
Following 8 years of implementation, various stakeholders have noted that the level of compliance by Ministries, Departments & Agencies (MDAs) on the scope of requirements for the issuance of financial clearance has revealed that it was unsatisfactory and hence required to review of the guidelines.
During the stakeholders’ engagement held at the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development held on Monday 26th February 2024, officiated by The Deputy Secretary to the Treasury, Mr. Patrick Ocailap said that the revised guidelines present an analytical framework for the assessment of the financial & socio-economic implications of legislative & policy proposals.
The Technical officers pictured below, who participated in the meeting were drawn from all the 20 National Development Plan III Programmes and will run until this Friday.
Section 76 of the Public Finance Management Act,2015 requires the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development to issue a Certificate of Financial Implications for every Bill introduced in Parliament which discloses estimates of revenue & expenditure.
In addition, every Cabinet Memorandum must be issued a Letter of Financial Clearance by the ministry before submission to the Cabinet.Before the coming into effect of the Public Finance and Management Act 2015, the practice and issuance of Certificates of Financial Implications faced numerous challenges including;
Lack of clear guidelines of the preparation and submission of Certificates of Financial Implications, inadequate information submitted by the Ministries, which has implications on the quality and timeliness of issuance of Certificates of Financial implications, Delayed response to the requesting ministry or delayed issuance of Certificate of Financial Implications by the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development among others.
According to the law, the guidelines are issued in order “to provide for clear roles and responsibilities in the preparation and issuance of certificates of financial implications, to ensure the quality and timeliness of requests of Certificates of Financial implications from Sector Ministries with inadequate information and to minimize delays in the issuance of Certificate of Financial Implications.
The achievement of the National Development Plan III according to National Planning Authourity have been hindered by insufficient funding, weak leadership and poor public investment management.
The government aims to realise 80% of the targets in the NDP III which runs from 2020 to 2025.
