It is an offence against the Public Financial Management Act 2016 (PFM Act 926) for any tertiary institution in the country to continue to undertake any financial transaction outside the Ghana Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS).
The time has, therefore, come for tertiary institutions to rethink and submit to the immediate application of GIFMIS or face the consequences of the act, Mr Kwasi Kwaning-Bosompem, the Acting Controller and Accountant General has cautioned.
Addressing a sensitisation forum for heads of tertiary institutions, finance officers and accountants, to explain the benefits and objectives of GIFMIS in Accra, the Controller and Accountant General urged authorities of the institutions to disregard an erroneous impression that GIFMIs was going to deprive them of their income or resources.
He explained that the core objective of GIFMIS was for comprehensiveness and transparency in public financial management and also for the promotion of electronic financial transactions as the country moves towards the global trend of paperless financial services and economies.
Prof. Mohammed Salifu, the Executive Secretary of the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) disclosed that the Auditor General had declared that forthwith, the use of GIFMIS was going to be one of the key issues for auditing and that the challenge was now for all such institutions to do the right thing or face the consequences of the law.
He expressed gratitude to the Controller and Accountant General’s Department for partnering the NCTE and the Ministry of Education in holding the sensitisation and training forum, especially for the finance and treasury officers of the tertiary institutions and also for the patience the department had exercised over the last few years for the institutions to come on board the GIFMIS.
BY TIMES REPORTER
