SANA’A, July 31 ­— Last Monday the Finance Ministry presented the “Public Finance Modernization Project,” as well as the Accounting and Financial Management Information System to a huge crowd that included a number of the reconciliation government ministers.

AFMIS is an automated system that helps prepare and execute the public budget of the state in addition to issuing the state's final accounts. The system was first implemented in 2007 in four government ministries. In 2010, the program was expanded to an additional five ministries. The ministries that utilize this system are the Finance Ministry, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Public Works and Highways, Ministry of Public Health and Population, Ministry of Petroleum and Mines, Ministry of Electricity and Energy, Ministry of Water and Irrigation, the Taxes Authority, Customs Authority and the Yemen Central Bank.

Sakhar Al-Wajeeh, the Finance Minister, said in the inauguration ceremony on Monday that the system would contribute to lowering the operating costs of the state finance administration. The system is expected to contribute to executing the Ministry of Finance program to establish transparency by means of publishing the budget and reports relating on the ministry website; the website currently gives access to many financial documents.

Alwajeeh said they’re trying to make the system include all offices in the local and central authorities plus instant connection with the Central Bank so financial accounts are dispatched and received automatically between the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank in accordance with the future plans of the project.

AFMIS aims to provide essential information for the decision makers quickly; it also aims to better communication between different government administrations and to smoothly exchange information, said Ghailan Mohammed Al-Shayf, the project’s executive manager, adding that the system will save time and effort when searching for the documents needed.

The Central Bank of Yemen played a major role in supporting the project; it was supposed to be launched last year; however, events of the last year prevented its implementation.

This system provides large storage capacity for documents and preservation for spare documents; these documents can be retrieved safely when necessary said Ghailan, who added that this system is one of the best database systems in the country.  

The system is flexible and easy to use. It provides decision makers with several reports that previously took a long time to prepare. These reports help detect imbalances that need to be addressed.