Some 257 participants from different ministries and departments were on Wednesday certificated after completing training on the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS).
These included 19 Application Core Team Members, 12 Technical Core Team members, 163 End Users and 63 Executives.
Speaking on the occasion, the IFMIS project manager, Momodou Bah, said the training formed part of their drive to enhance the skills of civil servants and reduce implementation cost of government.
The implementation approach of the project resulted in enhancing the skills of the team to extend the IFMIS.
He said that the Phase 1 implementation activities of the project commenced in late 2005 and the IFMIS went on well on 2 January 2007, covering 6 pilot sites.
"On 1 February 2009, the Government of The Gambia issued the phase 1 Final Acceptance certificate to the supplier, Soft-Tech Consultants Limited, following a continual enhancement and fine-tuning of the system," he noted.
This paved the way for the implementation of the second phase of the IFMIS, mainly rolling out the system to the remaining ministries and departments.
"The Government of The Gambia entered into phase 2 contract negotiations, and signed a contract with the supplier in August 2009.
This, he said, kick-started the Phase 2 implementation activities then the supplier Soft-Tech in collaboration with the training Management Workgroup TMG delivered the training for 10 batches of End Users and 4 batches of Executive End Users."
Deputising the Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs at the ceremony, the permanent secretary, Mod Secka, congratulated the trainees for their achievement.
"This achievement will further enhance the coordination and harmonisation of budget preparation and execution, accounting, finicial management. More so, transparency and accountability in the management of public funds will be further enhanced," he said.
The associated benefits are numerous, he said, adding that government and its development partners are interested in such initiatives. "We are anxious for a successful IFMIS implementation," he said.
He said that one of the major ongoing financial reforms involved in the implementation of an Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS), is to handle all government financial transactions.
For his part, Bhatti Shah, Supplier Soft Tech Consultant, said: "Our company values are driven to ensure that our clients realise the benefit of investment made."
He added: "Soft-Tech Consultants Limited,
He added that Soft-Tech is very proud to be associated with the project as the Prime Supplier for the Epicor based IFMIS implementation for the Government of The Gambia.
"The most striking element for us with this project has been the spirit of IFMIS ownership at all levels of the Government and government's desire to implement IFMIS as a best practice solution," he said.
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