ISLAMABAD: Khyber Pukhtunkhwa Finance Minister Engineer Muhammad Humayun Khan, on Thursday, inaugurated the first ever integrated Public Finance Management (PFM) strategy based on the principles of promoting efficiency, accountability and transparency within the government system.
The launching ceremony of PFM strategy was also attended by KP’s Finance Secretary Saeed Ahmad, Planning and Development Secretary Muhammad Saleem, Higher Education (SHE) Secretary Farah Hamid, Secondary Education Special Secretary Farid Qureshi, Health Special Secretary Professor Noorul Eman, Establishment Additional Secretary Aalimgir Shah, Finance Additional Secretary Nadeem Bashir and P&D Additional Secretary Shahzad Bangash, who made comprehensive presentations to the donors.
This special interactive launching ceremony was also attended by the representatives from World Bank Pakistan Office, DFID Pakistan, Asia Foundation, US Embassy, US Agency for International Development (USAID), AUSAID, Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), European Union delegation, German and Royal Netherlands embassy officials.
Speaking on the occasion, the minister said that the integrated PFM strategy is a step towards consolidating the reforms introduced to improve the budget-making process and the financial management of the public expenditure in KP. He emphasised rigorous monitoring of the public finance under the monitoring and evaluation framework approved by the KP government in January.
The finance minister lauded the efforts of the DFID-funded Provincial Reforms Programme, with the help of which reforms in the public finance management were initiated last year through the introduction of the output based budgeting in three departments, which was expanded to twelve departments this year. The minister said that the approval of the integrated PFM strategy will prove a key milestone activity in improving governance and service delivery in KP.
Earlier, in the workshop, the KP Finance Secretary Saeed Ahmed welcomed the workshop participants. The Additional Secretary (Budget) Nadeem Bashir highlighted salient features of the integrated PFM Strategy. These included: making budget strategy by linking policies and plans with the budget, making the budget result-oriented, improving budget execution, investing in human resources, and improving the accountability systems. The integrated PFM strategy aims at mitigating risks identified in the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability Assessment (PEFA) and Fiduciary Risk Assessment (FRA), the secretary finance informed the audience.
The KP Planning and Development Department Additional Secretary Shahzad Bangash made a presentation on monitoring and evaluation reforms being undertaken by government to improve impact of the policies, plans and programmes. He highlighted three key areas in which ME reforms are being undertaken by the KP government. Monitoring is the key to improve governance and accountability, he emphasised. – Dailytimes
