government of sindh finance department (economic

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GOVERNMENT OF SINDH

FINANCE DEPARTMENT

(Economic Reform Unit)

Karachi dated the 14th April, 2015

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WORKSHOP ON INFORMATION SYSTEMS FOR IMPROVING

DEPARTMENTAL PERFORMANCE

With a view to extend the use of SAP (Systems Application & Products)

software to all the administrative departments as part of Public Financial

Management Strategy approved by the Provincial Cabinet, Finance Department

with the assistance of European Union, organized a workshop on

“Information Systems for Improving Departmental Performance” on

31st March, 2015 from 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM at Pearl Continental Hotel Karachi

for orientation of administrative departments with the system.

2. The prime objective of the workshop was to encourage use of GFMIS in

the line departments. The workshop served as a part of the implementation of

the Public Financial Management Reform Strategy of the Government of Sindh,

which focuses on improving public financial management to improve service

delivery. It provided an overview of GFMIS of its many uses in improving

financial control within a line department. The workshop also gave more details

about the type of information that can be accessed through the system. The

questions and answers session of the workshop generated many interesting

questions from the participants, including questions about authorization,

expenditure checks on payroll and using the PIFRA/SAP system for formulating

the budgets. The workshop was meant to be the first in a series of workshops

on improving the use of PIFRA/SAP within line departments. The future

workshops will focus on going into more detail on some of the issues raised

during this workshop and also providing more practical training to line

departments in accessing and using the system.

3. The workshop was well attended by Administrative Secretaries Sindh. The

Secretaries who attended the workshop include Dr. Fazallullah Pechuho;

Secretary Education & Literacy Department, Mr. Ahmed Bux Narejo, Secretary

(G.A), SGA&CD, Mr. Aftab Memon, Secretary (Antiquities), Culture, Tourism,

Antiquities Dept:, Mr. Abdul Rasheed Solangi, Secretary Women Development

Department, Mr. Sajjad Hussain Abbasi, Secretary Forest, Environment &

Wildlife Department, Syed Mumtaz Ali Shah, Secretary Works & Services

Department, Mr. Shahid Gulzar Shaikh, Secretary Agriculture, Supply & Prices

Department, Mr. Ghulam Akbar Leghari, Secretary Rehabilitation Department,

Mr. Shariq Ahmed, Secretary Social Welfare Department, Dr. Sheeren Mustafa,

Secretary Planning & Development Department, Mr. Zulfiqar Ali Shalwani,

Secretary Information & Archives Department, Mr. Taha Farooqi, Secretary

Transport Department, Mr. Ahsan Kehar, Accountant General Sindh, Mr.

Tashfeen K Niaz, Chairman, Sindh Revenue Board, Dr. Noor Alam, Special

Finance Secretary (Res), Finance Department, Syed Hassan Naqvi, Special

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Finance Secretary (B&E), Finance Department, Mr. Riaz Soomro, Special

Secretary, Home Department, Mr. Irfan Memon, Special Secretary, Local

Government Department, Mr. Riaz Ahmed Siddiqi, Special Secretary, Sports &

Youth Affairs Department. In addition to the Secretaries of the departments, the

workshop was attended by the Additional Secretaries and Drawing &

Disbursing Officers of the departments and officers of the Finance Department

(List of participants is attached).

4. Mrs Shadia Jaffer, Deputy Secretary (B&E), Finance Department was the

Master of Ceremonies for the event. The proceedings of the workshop are

detailed below:

Opening Remarks:

5. Dr. Fazallullah Pechuho; Secretary Education & Literacy Department,

Government of Sindh inaugurated the session. He highlighted the problems and

issues faced by Education & Literacy Department to verify the HR payroll of his

department and how these problems can be rectified by having access to reports

and data through a single click. He shared how his department has used

PIFRA/SAP system in their reform initiatives to track the data of ghost

employees of his department in order to save revenue of the province. He

thanked Secretary Finance to give him an opportunity for sharing his view

about the SAP system and requested the Administrative Secretaries to use SAP

system for accessing required information for better financial control. He also

stressed that efforts should be made to give training to the officers /officials for

enhancing their acquaintance with the system.

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6. Following this, Mr. Mohammed Sohail Rajput; Finance Secretary Sindh

gave an overview of the reform agenda of Public Financial Management Strategy

adopted by Finance Department to improve service delivery of the Government

of Sindh. He informed the participants that Public Financial Management

Reform Strategy had been approved by the Sindh Cabinet and that workshop

was the one of initiatives of this strategy to enhance the use of existing

technology to improve reporting and financial control.

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7. He briefed the participants on the themes of the Public Financial

Management Reform Strategy developed by Government of Sindh. He stressed

that the PFM strategy is being implemented to ensure a public finance system

that is based on the principles of transparency, accountability, equity, fiscal

discipline and efficiency in management and use of public resources for

improved service delivery and economic development. Main areas of reforms of

the PFM strategy are:

i. Planning & Budgeting;

ii. Budget & Financial Reporting;

iii. Budget Execution, Reporting, Accountability and Transparency;

iv. Budget Control, Auditing and Oversight.

8. Secretary Finance also informed the participants that revenue

mobilization is the first and foremost priority of Government of Sindh to

enhance collection, accounting and timely reporting of public revenues at

provincial and district levels.

9. Secretary Finance also shared that the PFM strategy would to be

implemented through two main PFM projects:

i. Sindh Public Sector Management Reform Project (World Bank

Funded Project)

ii. PFM Support Programme (European Union Funded Programme)

10. He thanked the World Bank and European Union for their support in

carrying out reforms activities for strengthening public sector performance in

the Province of Sindh through improved revenue generation and expenditure

management.

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11. Sindh Public Sector Management Reform Project will be implemented with

the support of the World Bank for tenure of 5 years focusing on two main areas:

i. Revenue mobilization, especially working with Sindh Revenue

Board;

ii. Expenditure management, especially focusing on internal audit,

transparency in public financial management, procurement and

management and transparency in the development portfolio.

12. PFM Support Programme will be implemented with support from the

European Union for 5 years focusing on operationalizing the PFM reform

strategy by:

i. Supporting the Finance Department draft a phased Action Plan for

the PFM strategy;

ii. Providing support in key areas of the Action Plan, especially those

related to strategic planning and budgeting, in-year and end-year

reporting and review and update of the regulatory framework.

13. A key element of the PFM reform agenda is the use of technology and

automation of systems for better financial management. PIFRA/FMIS can help

line departments’ better control their finances. Enhancing the understanding of

line departments about PIFRA to improve financial control and help those better

decisions, spot irregularities and be better informed about the performances of

their departments.

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14. Secretary Finance thanked all the Administrative Secretaries who

attended the session and showed their interest to extend use of SAP system in

the line departments.

15. The technical session of the workshop was conducted by Mr. Nohman

Ishtiaq, Mr. Shehzad Hassan and Mr. Waqas Ahmed. Mr. Nohman Ishtiaq who

is a Public Financial Management Consultant having experience of working at

the Federal and Provincial levels over the past 10 years and currently working

as Deputy Team Leader with EU funded PFM Support Programme gave a broad

overview of the PIFRA/SAP system and its uses in the current financial

management environment. He highlighted that for improving service delivery,

improving departmental performance is key. Improving departmental

performance is linked with service delivery, better management of policy, HR,

finances, procurements, etc. He stated that the Government of Pakistan had

made a huge investment on information system that computerized finance,

payroll and pension processes, called Project to Improve Financial Reporting

and Auditing (PIFRA). More than 5,000 officials use it on daily basis across

Pakistan. PIFRA runs world’s leading software called SAP. Pay of civil servants

and all bills are currently being processed through this system. At present, the

system is predominately used by Accounting Offices; it can be used by line

departments as well. The system can generate reports regarding budget,

expenditure, (recurrent and development) releases, payroll – by employee,

pensions (work in progress). Through the system, departments can print out

multitude of analytical reports, re-appropriate funds, and monitor payroll,

pensions, ADP expenditure, releases, and even enter budgets, etc. The system

has enormous capacity to work on new innovations.

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16. He requested the Administrative Secretaries of line departments to take

benefit of the system by using it in their departments and also give training to

their employees to get maximum output from the system.

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17. Mr. Shehzad Hasan followed the presentation of Mr Nohman Ishtiaq by

going into more detail of the PIFRA/SAP system and describing its architecture.

Mr. Hassan is a team leader for EU funded Public Financial Management

Support Programme in Sindh and has previously worked as Director, (PIFRA)

with the Controller General of Accounts where he was instrumental in

implementing PIFRA system to a large number of entities across Pakistan. He

gave a brief introduction of the PIFRA project. He mentioned that over the last

10 years, Government of Pakistan and Provincial Governments had set up an IT

based Financial Management system whose objective was to replace

manual/stand-alone budgeting and accounting systems. Project is completed

and closed in December 2014. Now the ownership rests with Controller General

of Accounts (Accountant Generals) and Finance Department. System uses

software called SAP (System Applications and Products). He presented the

orientation how the system was connected with Federal to Provincial

Governments and Provincial to Distract Treasury offices. He also shared how

the budget was distributed to the treasury offices by Finance Department

through the system and no bills could be passed if the budget was not on the

SAP system. He apprised the participants of how to access the system with the

help of user name and pass word for generating required reports/information.

18. He requested to Principal Accounting Officer (s) to use the system for

better reporting and control as they are answerable before the Public Accounts

Committee for the expenditures they incurred.

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19. Mr. Waqas Ahmed concluded the technical presentations, by giving an

overview of how to access reports in the PIFRA/SAP system. Mr Waqas Ahmed

is a Public Financial Management Professional, currently working in Finance

Division at Islamabad, is a qualified Accountant and SAP certified. In his

briefing, he mentioned that there were two ways of extracting information:

i. Information available on CGA’s website;

ii. Analytical reports can be generated through PIFRA system.

20. He presented various screen shots of the different reports i-e development

schemes releases & expenditure report, cost & center wise report, personal

information of employees such as salary slip, GP fund deductions report,

receipts collection of various taxes report. System also allows graphical display

of information. He emphasized to have system’s connectivity in line departments

with usernames and authorization and that employees should be given training

in line departments to access and use the system appropriately. Top leaderships

of Departments were encouraged to start using SAP system and ask their

juniors to generate different reports to check the expenditure periodically.

Q & A Session:

21. The Questions and Answers Session was the final technical element of the

workshop. The questions were fielded by a panel headed by Finance Secretary,

Mr. Ehsan Ali Kehar, Accountant General Sindh, Mr. Shehzad Hassan and Mr.

Waqas Ahmed. The participants raised a number of questions relating to

functioning of SAP System. They question raised including issue of data

transportation, authorization protocol, expenditure checks on payrolls for

sanctioned posts and designations, multi-year perspective of budgeting.

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Concluding remarks:

22. Mr. Ehsan Ali Kehar, Accountant General Sindh was requested to

conclude the workshop being major stakeholder to use the SAP system. He

concluded that the system had enormous capacity to give maximum output but

there was a dire need to use the system and take its benefits for improving

financial control. He assured his full cooperation to work together to make the

new innovations and resolve the concerns at any stage for better financial

management.

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LIST OF PARTICIPANTS OF WORKSHOP ON INFORMATION

SYSTEMS FOR IMPROVING DEPARTMENTAL PERFORMANCE

Sr. No.

Name & Designation

1. Mr. Frank Rijnders, Development Advisor, Public Finance Management European Union Delegation to Pakistan

2. Mr. John Gray, Team Leader, SPP European Union,

3. Mr. Fazallullah Pechuho, Secretary, Education & Literacy Department, GoS

4. Mr. Muhammad Sohail Rajput, Secretary, Finance Department, GoS

5. Mr. Ahsan Kehar Accountant General Sindh

6. Mr. Ahmed Bux Narejo, Secretary (G.A), SGA&CD, GoS

7. Mr. Aftab Memon,

Secretary (Antiquities) , Culture, Tourism, Antiquities Dept: GoS

8. Mr. Abdul Rasheed Solangi,

Secretary, Women Development Department, GoS

9. Mr. Sajjad Hussain Abbasi,

Secretary, Forest, Environment & Wildlife Department, GoS

10. Syed Mumtaz Ali Shah,

Secretary, Works & Services Department, GoS

11. Mr. Shahid Gulzar Shaikh,

Secretary, Agriculture, Supply & Prices Department, GoS

12. Mr. Ghulam Akbar Leghari,

Secretary, Rehabilitation Department, GoS

13. Mr. Shariq Ahmed, Secretary, Social Welfare Department, GoS

14. Dr. Shereen Mustafa, Secretary, (Planning), Plannin & Development Department, GoS

15. Mr. Zulfiqar Ali Shalwani, Secretary, Information & Archives Department, GoS

16. Mr. Taha Farooqi, Secretary , Transport Department, Gos

17. Mr. Iftikhar Ali Shallwani Secretary Health Department, GoS

18. Mr. Tashfeen K Niaz, Chairman, Sindh Revenue Board

19. Dr. Noor Alam, Special Finance Secretary (Res), Finance Department, GoS

20. Syed Hasan Naqvi, Special Finance Secretary (B&E), Finance Department, GoS

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21. Mr. Riaz Soomro,

Special Secretary, Home Department, GoS

22. Mr. Irfan Memon

Special Secretary, , Local Government, RD, PHE & HTP Department, GoS

23. Mr. Riaz Ahmed Siddiqi, Special Secretary, Sports & Youth Affairs Department, GoS

24. Mr. Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui, Director, Excise & Taxation Department, GoS

25. Mr. Khair Muhammad Kalwar, Additional Secretary (Dev), Finance Department, GoS

26. Mr. Ghullam Mujtaba Joyo, Additional Secretary (Res), Finance Department, GoS

27. Mr. Sohail Ahmed Qureshi,

Additional Secretary (Admn), Agriculture Department, GoS

28. Mr. Nisar Ahmed Shaikh,

Additional Secretary (Admn), Finance Department, GoS

29. Syed Ahmed Ali Shah,

Additional Secretary , Transport Department, GoS

30. Mr. Zahid Shah,

Additional Secretary, Works & Services Department, GoS

31. Mr. Niaz Ahmed Laghari,

Additional Secretary (T), IT. Department, GoS

32. Mr. Abdul Rahim Shaikh,

Additional Secretary, Finance Department.

33. Mr. Asif Jahangir, Additional Secretary (B&E) Finance Department, GoS

34. Mr. Hanif Muhammad, Additional Secretary /Women & Dev, GoS

35. Ms. Zakia Uqaili, System Analyst, Finance Department, GoS

36. Mr. Farooq Ahmed Memon, Coordinator, IPC

37. Mr. Shahmir Khan Bhutto Director (ERU) Finance Department, GoS

38. Mr. Aftab Ahmed Qazi, Director IT Finance Department, GoS

39. Mr. Siddique Ali Chandio, Director IT Finance Department, GoS

40. Mr. Pathan Abro, Director IT Finance Department, GoS

41. Mr. Muhammad Aamir Ansari, Sr. Program Officer (ERU), Finance Department, GoS

42. Mr. Moazzam Ali Mari,

Deputy Secretary, Finance Department, GoS

43. Mr. Majid Mohsin,

Deputy Secretary(Res), Finance Department, GoS

44. Mr. A.K. Rind


45. Ms. Sadia Jaffar,


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46. Dr. Ajiaz Alam Deputy Secretary (Dev); Finance Department, GoS

47. Imtiaz Ali Joyo, Deputy Director, Information Department, Sindh

48. Mr. Ghulam Murtaza Sheikh Deputy Secretary Chief Minister Secretariat Sindh Karachi

49. Mr. Raheel Anwar Soomro,

DC, Sindh Revenue Board.

50. Mr. Abdul Manan Soomro,

Senior Programmer, Finance Department, GoS

51. Mr. Aamir Zia Isran,

Section Officer (B&A)/DDO (ERU); Finance Department, GoS

52. Ms. Safia Aamir Isran,

Program Officer (RCU), ERU, Finance Department, GoS

53. Mr. Nek Muhammad Soomro,

Program Officer (MTBF), ERU, Finance Department, GoS

54. Mr. Ghullam Sarwar Mangi,

DDO/ SO (G), Chief Minister’s Secretariat Sindh

55. Mr. Abdul Qadir, Section Officer (B&E-I), Finance Department, GoS

56. Mr. Muhammad Mahfuzul Haq, Section Officer, Finance Department, GoS

57. Mr. Habib-ul-Islam, Section Officer (B&E), Finance Department, GoS

58. Mr. Muhammad Arshad khokhar, Section Officer, Finance Department, GoS

59. Mr. Nauroz Abbasi, Section Officer, Energy Department, GoS

60. Mr. Nisar Ahmed, SO (G), SGA&CD, GoS

61. Mr. Nisar Ahmed Shaikh, SO, Finance Department, GoS

62. Mr. Sarfaraz Ahmed, BO, PWDS.

63. Mr. Yousif Gill, SO(B&E-VII), Finance Department, GoS

64. Mr. Zakir Hussain Larik,

Section Officer, Finance Department, GoS

65. Mr. Saleem Ahmed,


66. Mr. Muhammad Azam Ali,

Section Officer, Finance Department, GOS

67. Mr. Muhammad Azeem,


68. Mr. Abdul Hameed,


69. Mr. Shafiq Gazdhar, Section Officer, Finance Department GoS

70. Mr. Ali Nawaz Talpur, Consultant, SGA&CD, GoS

71. Mr. Muhammad Malook Jokhio,

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SO(Gen), SGA&CD, GoS

72. Mr. Mian Ashraf,

Section Officer, Energy Department, GoS

73. Mr. Mir Muhammad Chamma,

AD(F), PDMA.

74. Syed Zafar Hashmi, APO to CS, SGA&CD, GoS

75. Mr. Zulfiqar Mirza Fiscal & Financial Manager (MTBF) Cell

76. Mr. Muhammad Hassan Memon, Data Base Manager, Finance Department, GoS

77. Mr. Farman Ali Tanwri, DAZ, Zakat & Usher Department GoS

78. Ms. Nyda Mukhtar, Consultant, OPM.

79. Mr. Salman, Editor, Roze TV

80. Mr. Ansar Hussain, Consultant.

81. Mr. Abdul Basit, F.A (MTBF), Cell

82. Ms. Amreen Nasir, DPA (MTBF)Cell

83. Mr. Maqsood Ahmed,

DPA (ERU), Finance Department

84. Mr. Muhammad Abbas,

DPA (ERU), Finance Department, GoS

government of sindh finance department (economic

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