The Ministry of Finance has outlined its key deliverables for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 most of which have started already in 2020.
This was done on Tuesday 6th October 2020 by the Acting Director of Research at the Ministry of Finance Alhaji Abu Komeh during the ongoing FY 2021 budget process at the Ministry of Finance Conference Hall in Freetown.
These deliverables according to the Acting Director of Research are geared towards increasing domestic revenue from 12.3% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2017 to 20% of GDP by 2023, improving expenditure Management and Control, strengthening fiscal risk management, and oversight of state-owned enterprises, strengthening research capacity to support policy formulation, improving public debt management, improving budget preparation and execution, strengthening the Ministry’s administrative capacity, strengthening fiscal decentralization, and improving the implementation and coordination if donor-funded projects.
Going into the nitty-gritty of the deliverables, Mr. Komeh said the Ministry will ensure that all donor-funded projects are aligned with the National Development Plan, ensure all disbursements are triggered by satisfactory Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) progress reports, and monitoring of donor-funded projects and conduct quarterly portfolio reviews.
“The Ministry will support the Local Government Ministry to review policies and the Local Government Act to strengthen local service delivery and also provide technical assistance and backstopping to local councils in actualizing their revenue potentials and regularly monitor their own revenue performance, ” he said.
He said the Ministry will collaborate with external professional organizations such as the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) to ensure journalists are trained in economic and financial reporting.
He said the Ministry will review and harmonize existing pension laws, fully automatic expenditure management by rolling out of E-Pets 2, and migrate to e-procurement.
The Ministry is requesting Le 162,762.2 Billion for the FY 2021.
The budget estimates for FY 2021 for the Accountant General’s Department amounting to Le 46,781.8 Billion as submitted by the Accountant General Mr Richard Williams.