The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) has been commended for making progress in the implementation of a Financial Management Improvement Project, a donor initiative from the Japan International Cooperation Agency, (JICA).
The project is aimed at safeguarding and ensuring the efficient use of government resources and assets.
Since 2010, JICA has been supporting the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to enhance its fixed asset management system being the first Ministry to deploy the Ghana Integrated Financial Management and Information System (GIFMIS) on a pilot basis.
The progress of the Ministry in implementing the project was announced by a Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC) set by JICA in Accra, a statement signed by Kojo Williams, the Public Relations Advisor of JICA, said.
Mr Norihito Yonebayashi, Senior Representative at JICA, who commended the Ministry for its commitment, asked other government agencies to emulate the practice.
“The Controller and Accountant General’s Department should roll out the practice to be replicated by other government agencies.
“This would help improve the asset management cycle utilising GIFMIS and to ensure the accountability and transparency in the efficient use and the safeguarding of government assets”, Mr Yonebayashi said.
Mr Joseph Boamah, the Chief Director of MoFA and the Project Director, commended JICA for the project saying it had helped to regularise some of the financial management practices at the Ministry and introduced a lot of efficiency”.
“Through the Project, the Accounting Guidebook of MoFA was developed to standardise the procedures of accounting and asset management, in line with the Public Financial Management reforms of the Government of Ghana”, the statement said.
