Public Finance Management Capacity Building

In terms of Project Development Objective (PDO) 1, "To improve budget coverage" of the Integrated Public Financial Management Reform Project (IPFMRP) - this was not achieved. Donor funded activities continue to be outside of the government’s financial statements. The project contributed to improved monitoring of disbursement under the donor-funded projects, but the data is not included into government’s financial statement as was intended by the project.  In terms of PDO 2, "To improve fiscal policy management" this was not achieved. Despite initial progress made in the implementation of the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), improvements in fiscal policy management have not materialized. Although the elements of the MTEF were introduced, the MTEF did not become a useful budgeting tool. At the same time, a comprehensive review of progress in fiscal policy management did not show significant progress. In addition, several of project outputs have not been used, including budget module and macro-fiscal forecasting capacity financed by the Project in the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP). In terms of PDO 3, "Improve financial control", and in particular in launching the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS), there was initial progress with internal controls as a result of first stage of IFMIS roll out and increased capacity of the staff in financial management, but a large share of payments are still (in 2019) outside of IFMIS as not all of the total fifty seven ministries and agencies use IFMIS to process all the payments. In addition, the Government has established county treasuries in keeping with the larger fiscal decentralization reform process, which are already operational in Grand Bassa, Bong, Margibi, and Nimba. A significant part of payments are still initiated and recorded outside of IFMIS. In terms of PDO 4 "Improve oversight of government finances" the General Auditing Commission (GAC) completed the backlog of audit reports over the course of the last PFM Reform Strategy and Action Plan up to FY 2014/15, and also conducted audits of more recent years. In improving oversight of government's finances, the project rating was partially achieved. The IPFMRP improved timeliness and quality of the financial statements, external scrutiny by the GAC and the Legislature, and in strengthening oversight of public procurement. The procurement function made continuous strides in improving disclosures and fairness of the process. Support was provided to establish an online procurement database and improve the capacity of ministries and agencies by a trained procurement certified specialist which led to improved use of competitive procurement methods and transparency. In the project's overall efforts to improve financial controls, this was partially achieved by the closing of the project. The project supported establishment of an State Owned Enterprise (SOE) oversight function. The SOE unit was established in the MFDP in 2013 to monitor financial standing of SOE's consistent with 2009 PFM Act. Under PDO 4, the project also helped engage civil society in the budgeting process. Over 100 Non-State Actors (NSAs) were trained in PFM, proposal writing, grant management, and/or results-based management.  Overall results/achievements in the context of Institutional strengthening: The project contributed to the establishment of the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA) and helped to strengthen PFM institutions, especially the MFDP, the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA), the Legislature Budget Office, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), and the Procurement Commission by improving working conditions, providing training to address critical capacity constraints, and by supporting implementation of the IT systems in human resources, payroll and FMIS. The activities of IPFMRP in terms of establishing the LRA included the completion of the LRA Framework, development of the strategic Organogram, publication of the Human Resource Management Manual, as well as provision of furniture, equipment, and vehicles.