Lewis Hawke, Head of PEFA Secretariat and Helena Ramos, Senior Public Finance Specialist participated in the launch of the fourth Zambia PEFA assessment in Lusaka, Zambia on October 3, 2016. The event was attended by high level government officials and development partners and preceded a two-day PEFA training for more than 30 people followed by an intensive workshop with the PEFA assessment team to discuss technical aspects of their proposed approach and the PEFA methodology.
In his opening remarks on behalf of the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Dick Chellah, the Accountant General, mentioned that, “the 2016 PEFA assessment is very important to us as it provides a framework for assessing and identifying the strengths and weaknesses in our public financial management systems. The first PEFA assessment was conducted in 2005, followed by a 2008 and a 2012 assessments. As a result of these assessments, we have been able to see the positive impact of the Public Financial Management reforms in certain areas of the budget cycle.”
Mr. Chellah referred to the current implementation of Public Financial Management Reforms which are aimed at strengthening public financial management in the public sector. He said, “These reforms are focused at improving the planning and budget process, accounting and financial reporting, public procurement, internal controls and audit, debt management and improving efficiency and effectiveness in the collection of tax and non-tax revenues. The PEFA framework therefore provides a basis for the Treasury to continue to improve and rationalize its financial management processes, procedures and systems.”
When concluding, Mr. Chellah expressed his hope that, “participants in this training will use the knowledge and information acquired from this training to effectively participate in the 2016 PEFA assessment process as well as improve the capacity of Government to manage its resources in a way that supports the development aspirations of the country.”
The PEFA training for government officials and the core PEFA assessment team between October 3 and 4, 2016 was rated as highly relevant, timely and useful. Participants said that it gave them a good understanding of PEFA scoring, the assessment process and its relationship to PFM reform dialogue and actions. The training event was sponsored and organized by the World Bank Zambia Country Office.
See the photo highlights from the event below. Click on the photos to browse through the album.
