The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has allotted P600 million for the implementation of the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS), which will integrate all public financial management processes, in line with the administration’s transparency and accountability agenda.
GIFMIS is a government-wide, browser-based web application that will link government financial processes together and facilitate their automated management. These processes—include accounting, cash management, reporting, and auditing—are regularly executed by the government’s three major oversight agencies: the DBM, Commission on Audit (COA), and the Department of Finance-Bureau of Treasury (DOF-BTr).
The DBM has been assigned as lead and fund administrator of GIFMIS. The IT system is one of the priority projects under the FYs 2011-2015 Philippine Development Plan (PDP), which mandated the automation of fully integrated financial management systems under the DBM, COA, and DOF-BTr.
“GIFMIS is one of the keystones in the administration’s larger structure of fiscal transparency and accountability in government. Because it’s web-based and updated in real time, all data in the system are easily tracked to ensure the integrity of our public financial management processes. Even better is the fact that GIFMIS will vastly improve the efficiency of our fiscal operations. When budgeting, accounting, and auditing are accomplished faster, we’re also in a position to serve the citizens better,” DBM Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad said.
The P600-million release will help cover various requirements for its implementation this year, which are as follows:
The E-Government Fund—against which the release was charged—supports major information and communication technology projects, including those for the government’s public financial management initiatives.
“We’re getting GIFMIS off the ground, exactly as the President instructed. The whole system, once in place, will embed financial transparency in the day-to-day operation of government. It will likewise be a major instrument in our good governance efforts, especially with respect to public financial management. Our drive to ensure transparency and accountability in financial processes will depend largely on our ability to come up with a seamlessly integrated IT system. It’s an urgent governance requirement that we’re quickly addressing head-on,” DBM Undersecretary and Chief Information Officer Richard E. Moya said.
