FMRP NEWS

http://www.fmrp.org/
Issue: January - March 2007
• Activities of the Components and Working Groups
• Important Event
• Seminars / Workshops
• Training Corner
• New Initiatives
• Staff News
• Social Events

Staff News:
Examination Success of Ms Jhuma Laila
Congratulations to Ms Jhuma Laila. Jhuma, an Associate Member (ACA) of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB). Jhuma passed the final part of professional examinations of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh at the sitting in November-December 2006 in Dhaka. She is now an ACA and already applied for full membership of ICAB. Jhuma is one of the 17 lady Chartered Accountants in Bangladesh and one of the 4 lady Chartered Secretaries in Bangladesh.

Activities of the Components and Working Groups
Component 4 (C-4):
Component 4 has continued to support the CGA in the preparation of the GoB monthly accounts and in improving the quality of the accounting information presented from the computerised accounting systems.

Assistance has been provided in reviewing accounting information recorded and presented to ensure that it has been appropriately classified.

Progress with the bank reconciliation process at the GoB accounting offices continues to be closely monitored and additional support and training is being provided where required, including liaison and instruction to the banking institutions to supply information in the format required to allow reconciliations to take place.

Component 4 has been working with Component 6 and Financial Systems Management Unit (FSMU) to commence the piloting of iBAS-TAS including planning for training and rollout over the upcoming months. They started piloting iBAS-TAS training at CAO - Fisheries and Livestock, and at DAO - Mymensingh.

Component 2 and 4
Initial work has commenced on February 25, 2006 on the preparation of a Cash Management Development Plan (CMDP). The purpose is to support the GoB to design a strategy and associated processes for managing cost effectively the government's short term cash flows and cash balances, both within government and between government and other sectors. The CMDP should assist in the overall improvement of the treasury, debt and cash management function of the GoB. The primary objective is to support the process for improved planning of cash management and ensure that government cash flow forecasts are compatible with cash inflows and borrowing plans.

Important Event :
Dr. Tareque joins as Finance Secretary
Dr. Mohammad Tareque joined as Secretary, Finance Division, Ministry of Finance on January 22, 2007. Born in 1956, Dr. Tareque joined Bangladesh Civil Service in 1981. He possesses a brilliant academic record. He did his Masters in Economics from Dhaka University. He obtained MAPE and PhD from the University of Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He has a long experience in research work on different issues and has 49 publications / research and analytical papers in his credit. His area of specialisation is Fiscal Economics and Public Expenditure Management.

Dr. Tareque held important positions within GoB and international agencies including Prime Minister's Office, Asian Development Bank, Bangladesh Public Administration Training Centre (BPATC) etc. He has been associated with reform programmes of GoB in the economic and financial sector and played a prominent role in formulating policy in this regard. A distinguished Civil Servant Dr. Tareque played a pioneering role in introducing MTBF in line ministries. Under his able leadership a wide area network (WAN) based integrated Budget and Accounting System (iBAS) with a central database in the Ministry of Finance and back up support at CGA office is also going to be operational very soon across the country. With his leadership as Finance Secretary the FMRP reform programmes will get further momentum.

Seminars / Workshops:

Seminar on 'Public Expenditure Management' A half day seminar on 'Public Expenditure Management' organised by FMRP C-2 was conducted over 4 days to an audience of a number of mid and high level management personnel of GoB. These seminars were delivered between the March 12 and March 15, 2007 in CIRDAP Auditorium, Dhaka. Dr. Mohammad Tareque, Secretary, Finance Division, Ministry of Finance inaugurated the seminar. The keynote speaker was Mr. Ranjit Kumar Chakraborty, Project Director, FMRP and the sessions were chaired by Mr. Al-Mamoon Md. Sanaul Huq, Controller General of Accounts, Mr. S. M. Zahurul Islam, Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forest and Mr. Muhammad Abdul Mazid, Member, Planning Commission, respectively. The objective of the seminar was to update high officials across the government about the latest reforms in public financial management and involve them in strengthening public expenditure management process.
A total number of 251 high officials of GoB including 41 female participated in the seminar.
workshop on 'Reforms in the Civil Accounts and Karmadokkhota' The office of CGA and C-5 jointly organised a workshop on 'Reforms in the Civil Accounts' and 'Karmadokkhota' (KDK) in February 07, 2007 at FIMA Conference Room. Mr. Asif Ali, CAG chaired the program. The main objectives of this programme were to analyse the implementation status of the strategic plans of CAG office; role of FIMA and FMRP C1 and C5 and their links with the strategic plans of the CAG.
In the first half of the workshop Mr. Al- Mamoon Md. Sanaul Huq, CGA, presented the keynote paper on Civil Accounts Reform. The second half of the workshop focused on Karmadokkhota which provided some valuable recommendations for 'On the Job Training' in government offices. Further workshops are planned outside Dhaka in the next few months.