Work is in progress to integrate the Government’s new Financial Management Information System (FMIS) with the budget and debt management systems.

Deputy PM and Finance Minister Prof Biman Prasad said at present, the budget preparation process is excel-based.

He said the Ministry of Finance is also working towards a budget software, which will be integrated with the new FMIS at a later stage.

Last week, Mr Prasad told Parliament of the updated FMIS and payroll system that cost $12million and will go live on August 1, 2024.

He said the Government’s accounting system had become outdated with challenges in terms of controls, reporting, efficiency, and system security.

“The new FMIS will also eliminate manual intervention like data punching and majority of the payroll related calculations will be possible through the new system,” Mr Prasad said.

“It will be easier to generate ad hoc reports and customised reports with new parameters to suit the needs of the users and decision-making process.

“It will also provide better analytics and will be able to disaggregate financial data according to categories like climate change and gender-based activities with the click of a button.”