The Cambodian government has announced plans to expand its Financial Management Information System (FMIS) to include additional government ministries and public administrative institutions at the sub-national level.
The announcement was made by Dr. Aun Ponmoniroth, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, at an event held in Phnom Penh in early July, 2023 which was attended by ministry officials, sub-national officials, and development partners.
Minister Aun Pornmoniroth emphasised that expanding the FMIS system is a contribution to the digital revolution, and it will make financial procedures more efficient.
“The government’s framework is based on a digital government policy framework. Therefore, civil servants must be ready to learn more about digital technology, embrace the digital way of working, and increase their digital literacy quickly to keep up with the changing social and economic landscape,” he said.
Dr. Hean Sahib, Minister Delegate to the Prime Minister, Secretary of State, and Chairman of the FMIS Project Management Team, also spoke at the event and explained that the information technology system for public financial management is a global approach and solution designed to support automation and the integration of the government’s public financial management process.
“This technology is not only for the Cambodian government to use but also for governments around the world to promote budget discipline, increase budget allocation, and increase efficiency, ensuring the provision of public services to citizens with accountability, transparency, consistency, and efficiency,” he said.
The FMIS project is a core part of the Public Financial Management Reform Program (PFMRP) and was initiated in 2008 to improve financial accountability.
What is the Financial Management Information System (FMIS)?
According to the World Bank, the FMIS automates and integrates public financial management processes, including budget formulation, execution, accounting, and reporting.
In Cambodia the FMIS system is linked to the National Bank of Cambodia, other partnered commercial banks, public debt management systems, and non-fiscal tax revenue management systems.
The World Bank has been providing technical advice on business process and change management, contributing to the government’s adoption of an exchange management strategy and business process streamlining plan.The World Bank helped the Ministry of Economy and Finance to adopt the business process streamlining plan (BPSP) in early 2020.
Development of Cambodia FMIS
The first-generation digital file system (FMIS Portal) was developed by the Ministry of Economy and Finance for use as communication between the district administration and the commune administration with the capital-provincial treasury using a smartphone application.
Based on FMIS’ official website, the first generation FMIS Portal launched in two phases. Phase I in May 2022 and Phase II in March 2023 in 6 municipal administrations, 137 district administrations, and 632 commune administrations, including the capital and all provincial treasuries.
In the third phase, the FMIS Portal will be officially launched to the remaining district, commune, and Sangkat administrations
Similar to this development, Cambodia has also entered the third phase of its online business registration system called the “Single Portal,” which integrates the services of issuing licenses, certificates, professional licenses, and other relevant documents from 12 ministries and institutions. This system operates through the Cambodia Data eXchange (CamDX), which serves as the backbone for exchanging data between different online systems.
What Is the Third FMIS Phase?
The Minister of Economy and Finance announced the expansion of the scope of the implementation of the new system-wide procedures as follows:
- To fully implement FMIS for 7 ministries-institutions.
- Launching FMIS in 4 public administrative institutions.
- Launch the first generation FMIS Portal to the remaining 1045 municipalities, districts and communes throughout the country.
- Implementing the coordination function between FMIS and the salary data management system for civil servants for 22 additional ministries and institutions.
- Implement the FMIS project for 44 municipal-district administrations to be ready for official use in 2024.
