Coordinating directors, budget and planning officers of the 33 Municipal and District Assemblies (MDAs) in the Eastern Region have been educated on the Public Financial Management Act and regulations.
They were taken through the Public Financial Management (PFM), Public Investment Management (PIM) of 2019 and the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Act 2020.
The training was organized by the Ministry of Finance as part of the national stakeholders’ engagement to ensure prudent management of the public purse.
The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Seth Acheampong, said the Acts provided the legal framework to guide the optimal use of public funds.
He called on coordinating directors and all those involved in public finance management at the MDAs to comply with the rules for proper accountability.
Mr Kojo Nkansah, Principal Budget Analyst at the Ministry of Finance, explained that signing multi-year contracts and commitments were some of the biggest challenges in the public financial sector.
He said some officers sign multi contracts committing their assemblies to about four years contract in clear breach of the law.
Mr Nkansah said that practice often resulted in judgement debts and stressed that “the law says do not engage in multi-year commitments anything short of that is a clear legal breach.”
He therefore underscored the need for all stakeholders to be familiar with the laws and regulations to ensure they acted within the remits of the legal framework.
