Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has expressed the government’s commitment to prevent the accumulation of new arrears.

According to him, the commitment comes with the approved implementation of measures to strengthen control mechanisms.

The Finance Minister made the disclosure on the floor of Parliament on Wednesday during his presentation of the Government’s 2024 Budget Statement and Economic Policy.

Mr Ofori-Atta stated that a Spending Arrears Clearance and Prevention Strategy was developed and approved by Cabinet for implementation as part of the measures to achieve the objective of bringing public finances back on a sustainable path through improved efficiency in public spending.

“To clear the existing stock of arrears, the Ghana Audit Service has begun the verification and validation of the arrears identified as at end-December 2022 before payments are made.”

Mr Ofori-Atta emphasised the government’s decision to align the quarterly budget allotments with cash flow forecast and tighten the use of allotments as a control on the Government-wide Integrated Financial Management System (GIFMIS) rather than the budget starting with the 2024 budget.

The Finance Minister also outlined requirements on MDAs to revise their cash plans on a quarterly basis to reflect the allotments received over the year and remaining requirements.

“The Cash plan module on Oracle Hyperion will be reconfigured by December 2023 after completing all stakeholder engagements, in line with the system's functionalities, which will be deployed to the various MDAs. MDAs will be trained on how to use the system to enable them to update their cash plans quarterly. This will ensure that MDAs are able to revise their cash plans within the window provided,” he said.

Mr Ofori-Atta noted that the government aims to standardise contracts for public works to ensure flexibility in budget execution.

He highlighted the government’s commitment to reviewing standard tender documents to include clauses that make the award of the contract null and void if not supported by GIFMIS-generated PURCHASE ORDER.

“All MDAs will be required to use GHANEPS for all Procurements to enhance transparency and efficiency in the procurement of goods, works, consultancy, non-consultancy, and asset disposal.”

The Finance Minister further outlined steps the government has implemented to improve budget execution practices.

“Approval of MDAs commencement requests to be done within the first quarter of any fiscal year to allow MDAs sufficient time to complete procurement and payment processes before end of year.

“Enforcement of the use of GIFMIS for all transactions to prevent unbudgeted expenditure.”

In conclusion, Mr Ofori-Atta noted that the Internal Audit Agency will ensure that public officers within covered entities adhere to the legal and regulatory principles governing public financial management in the discharge of their duties.