4TH IHP+ COUNTRY TEAMS MEETING: Sustaining and Accelerating Change,

Getting Results

12-14 December 2012 Nairobi, Kenya

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JFMA Process• For Sierra Leone to own the process a National

Counterpart Team(NCT) was formed and its membership was drawn from key stakeholders in Public Financial Management

• Operationalising the NCT was difficult considering its diversity in the number of government institutions involved.

• NCT is useful in moving forward with the road map and contributing to the FMA report.

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Working with development partners

• DPs had dealt directly with implementers for their respective programmes in isolation from the central ministries

• DPs were not in touch wit the AGD in the opening of bank accounts for the implementation of their interventions

• DP interventions to a large extent had not been on-budget and on-treasury which has lead GOSL to miss out valuable information particularly inflows and expenditures of health

• DPs have asked for separate reports and audits and this has been time consuming and counter-productive for the staff

• DPs have had reasons for their past behaviors but this has hampered accountability and transparency.

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Benefits• Stronger risk assessment and management for all operations

financed by DPs in the health sector;• Less frequent FM assessments, a single FM framework and processes

(partly aligned with the country’s fiduciary framework);• United accounting and reporting support systems including common

rules & requirements• Single set of periodic reports and reduced burden on production of

reports with better transparency• Single and streamlined audits with better scope and visibility by

auditors and management

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Challenges• DPs and government to incorporate the tasks into their

functions/government institutions and work programs (same calendar and timetables),

• DPs to develop, operationalize, maintain close coordination/collaboration among themselves to reduce divergent approaches

• Establishing and funding the Integrated Program Administration Unit (IPAU) and absorbing stand alone PIUs

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Recommendations to donors

• Draft and sign MOU which documents common FM arrangements

• Coorporate with government for compliance with rules– eg. opening and operating bank accounts, align decision and approval processes with those of the country and good practices

• Ensure adequate and timely information is provided (eg. cost of in-kind goods delivered, informing the Auditor General for audits, numbers for Budgeting)

• Support the MOHS for capacity building and establishment of the IPAU and absorbing other PIUs

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Recommendations to other Ministries of Health

• Resolve any governance issues that may exist• Coordinate and ensure that funds accessibility is

facilitated reducing bottlenecks at the MoH• Engage MoF to facilitate funds accessibility and

capacity building• Better planning and budgeting process by working

with DPs to align DP-gov. budget cycle, including preparation of realistic plans and cash-flow projections

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Next steps

• Translate recommendations into a National Action Plan and prepare MoU for a Joint Financial Management Arrangement (JFMA)

• Draft Action Plan and JFMA MoU will be submitted to the Health Sector Steering Group and discussed at Stakeholders conference

• The MoU will be signed by the GOSL and development partners