Leverage ICT and eGovernment Infrastructure to Better Support National Goals/Objectives through the Budget Process
Posted by Mark Silins, CARTAC PFM Advisor
Thirty-five participants from seventeen Caribbean countries came together for three days in Belize City (Belize) in September 2009 to discuss strategic ICT issues to better enable PFM reform and PFM systems. The theme for the regional FMIS conference organized by CARTAC/CaPFA[1] was “Leverage ICT and eGovernment infrastructure to better support national goals/objectives through the budget process.”
The conference was broken into two distinct parts. The first day and a half was devoted to presentations and discussion on strategic issues, maximising opportunities, and reengineering in eGovernance; the challenge of retaining skilled IT staff; integration of system reform with broader PFM reform; and common regional PFM issues and system approaches.
John Moore, former ICT Director from the Office of Budget Management, US Government, provided the keynote address for the conference, while I facilitated the three days. All participating countries made a contribution to the conference participating in one of the twelve country-specific presentations delivered in the first part of the conference. More than two-thirds of the presentations were given by the attendees themselves.
The country presentations were extremely well received and a number of participants indicated a desire for greater opportunities to share individual experiences and have more discussion among countries. Future conferences will continue this approach and examine ways to create greater exchanges. The conference has already resulted in tangible benefits for two countries―Antigua and Guyana commencing an exchange to better share areas to lever benefits in terms of financial reporting in particular.
The second half of the conference was devoted to system user groups, where countries sharing common FMISs came together with the software providers to discuss issues and future developments. One of the providers found this particularly useful as it presented the opportunity to hear honest feedback and concerns about a range of performance issues. A third user group of countries that did not have a common FMIS system was convened to discuss specific issues of concern raised by the group. John Moore and I jointly facilitated this session, which spanned issues from specific areas of ICT to output based budgeting.
Evaluative feedback from the conference was extremely positive, indicating that the strategic approach to the agenda should continue in 2010. The vast majority of participants also indicated that the conference had strongly increased their understanding of strategic issues in relation to FMIS implementation in government.
“It has benefited myself and my country as a whole since there was a lot of knowledge sharing and ideas and recommendations.”
“It surpassed my expectations. I think the added presentations by participants were a good change to the agenda. The conference provided ideas on changes I can implement in my country.”
The tentative date and venue for next year’s conference is September in Anguilla.
Presentations from the Conference are available here.
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[1] Caribbean Technical Assistance Centre and Caribbean Public Finance Association
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