A two-day workshop to sensitise regional and district finance officers, accountants and treasury officers of Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) on the new Ghana Integrated Financial Management information System (GIFMIS), is underway in Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region.

The MMDAs are expected to start operating the new computerised financial control system this month.

Mr. Michael Ampau, resource personnel for the workshop, said the GIFMIS was aimed at promoting public financial management reforms and ensuring fiscal discipline and macro-economic stability.

He said the old financial collation method, delayed processing and financial reporting and produced poor feed back for assessing budgetary performance.

According to Mr. Ampau, the GIFMIS would be implemented through E-Business Financial Suite, and become the official system of recording, to meet Government of Ghana budget disbursements, financial accounting and reporting, internal control, and auditing requirements.

He said the system, which was used to generate annual accounts from January to August 2012, had proved to be an effective and reliable method of ensuring financial control and management.

Mr. Ampau said the GIFMIS would ensure uniformity in accounting and reporting with the introduction of a common chart of account and database for all MMDAs, improvement in accountability, control, monitoring and auditing of governmental finances.