BUJUMBURA, Oct 12 (ABP) – The Cabinet held on Friday, October 7 under the chairmanship of the Head of State Evariste Ndayishimiye, analyzed the draft unified strategy for the computerization of public finances, presented by the Minister in charge of finance.
In a press release issued by the secretary general and spokesperson for the government, it is mentioned that this strategy overcomes the challenges related to the management of public finances; in terms of collection, expenditure and updated statistics. The strategy also addresses the challenge of existing non-harmonized laws and regulations.
According to the explanations provided by the supervising minister, this will allow this ministry to have an overview, centralized control in the management, monitoring of all public revenue and expenditure. According to this press release, this system will be largely based on information and communication technologies. It will replace the current system which is fragmented and based on unintegrated processes.
For the implementation of this project, eight complementary projects to be carried out have been proposed. Thus, it is a question, among other things, of adapting the computerized system of the BRB to the management of the single account of the public treasury; interface the IT systems of financial institutions with the BRB system; adapt the expenditure management system at the level of the ministry in charge of finance to the management of the single account of the public treasury; promote the use of electronic payments in the collection of public revenues; operationalize the OBR’s tax collection systems, finalize and operationalize the municipal tax collection system. A roadmap was also proposed for the implementation of this strategy.
After discussion and debate, according to this press release, the Council of Ministers recommended that the implementation of this strategy be ensured by the Minister of Finance; specify the implementation period; to clearly formulate the vision of this strategy and to develop an implementation plan for the strategy instead of proposing a roadmap. It was also recommended to properly organize the chain of income and expenditure.