Accra, March 16, GNA - Ghana and four development partners on Wednesday signed a memorandum of Understanding to provide the nation's public financial management system with a $60 million grant over the next four years towards improved management of public finances. The four development partners- the World Bank, United Kingdom's Department for International Development, European Commission and Danish International Development Agency have jointly pooled the funds to co-finance the implementation of the Ghana Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) project.

GIFMIS aims to improve the effectiveness of expenditure, reduce wasteful spending and make it easier to track what government monies have been spent on.

Mrs Effie Simpson Ekuban, Chief Director of the Ministry of Finance and Mr Michael Corlin, Chief Financial Officer at the Danish Embassy, signed the agreement for Ghana and the donors respectively. Mr Corlin said the donors would help reduce transaction costs by avoiding the use of multiple procedures and multiple reporting. He expressed the hope that GIFMIS would improve allocation of scarce resources and contribute to accountable, effective and transparent service delivery at both central and decentralised levels. In a statement read on his behalf, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, said the overall objective of GIFMIS project was to improve the effectiveness of service delivery and the allocation of scarce resources using new systems and tools to assure accountable, more effective and transparent financial governance. The GIFMIS would also enhance annual budget preparation, modernise revenue collection processes, empower local government units, modernise electronic data transmission, storage and disaster recovery systems, among other interventions.