Goodall clarifies on Ifmis software
Finance, Economic Planning and Development Minister Goodall Gondwe yesterday said government is not clinging to the old version of the Integrated Financial Management Information System (Ifmis) software saying it is still working to migrate out of the system.
Gondwe, speaking at a news conference at Capital Hill in Lilongwe, said government would tender for software companies to bid to supply a new package, but hinted that the process could take four or more years for the new software to be effective.
“We are quite surprised to hear that we are clinging to the [epicol 7.3] software. We have to tender so that people should apply and no decision has been made yet. We don’t want to sustain Cashgate, no. In fact, we are working day and night to close the gaps,” said Gondwe in reaction to media reports.
The minister, while referring to studies by experts from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said migrating to new software would take a bit of time before it becomes functional.
Commenting on the adverts in the print media on withdrawal of the advert seeking suppliers of the new system, Gondwe said the withdrawal is because government needed to do a lot more such as add on specifications of the new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) to address the current system’s weaknesses.
“We know that the current system has deficiencies and our policy is to enhance the efficiencies such as speed and particularly we need to have a new server to increase the capacity of the present epicol 7.3 software,” added the minister.
On his part, Accountant General Thomas Makiwa stated that the withdraw of the advert in the press is meant to enhance it as the initial one was devoid of some key information to the potential suppliers.
Makiwa estimated that government envisages to have a successful bidder begin working in May and that the consultancy will take a minimum of six months before the new system fully functions sometime in July 2016.
