GOVERNMENT MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM INTRODUCTION

Since July 2003, the Federal Government has taken bold steps to begin to tackle the deep-seated risks to macroeconomic and fiscal stability and to address key sources of economic inefficiency. It is implementing policies to strengthen economic management and to deal with weak governance and corruption. The budget function has been consolidated in a strengthened budget office and greater transparency has been introduced to public expenditure management through regular publication of allocations of federation revenues to all tiers of governments, and through widespread dissemination of information on budget allocations and execution. The budget is becoming better aligned with Nigeria’s poverty reduction priorities. Subsidies, which benefited better off Nigerians, are being eliminated and ploughed back into other expenditures that could benefit poorer Nigerians. Greater financial controls have been put in place through the creation of a Cash Management Committee chaired by the Minister of Finance, thus limiting the extent of deviation between budget and actual expenditure and the accumulation of new expenditure arrears. Objectives of the Gifmis The overall objective is to implement a computerized financial management information system for the FGN, which is efficient, effective, and user friendly and which: 1. Increases the ability of FGN to undertake central control and monitoring of expenditure and receipts in the MDAs. 2. Increases the ability to access information on financial and operational performance. 3. Increases internal controls to prevent and detect potential and actual fraud. 4. Increases the ability to access information on Government’s cash position and economic performance. 5. Improves medium term planning through a Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) 6. Provides the ability to understand the costs of groups of activities and tasks. 7. Increases the ability to demonstrate accountability and transparency to the public and cooperating partners.