Ifmis challenges in councils worry Icam

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Malawi (Icama) has decried the use of an outdated Integrated Financial Management and Information System (Ifmis) in councils, saying it may negatively impact on public finance management.

Icam acting executive director Charles Chimpeni expressed the sentiment in a response to a questionnaire that unsupported management systems may lack the updates to the software meaning that it can be running on outdated software.

This follows revelations on Wednesday by the National Local Governance Finance Committee (NLGFC) that councils have continued to use the expired Serenic Navigator accounting software, which even Microsoft Corporation stopped supporting in 2020.

Said Chimpeni: “The risk poses a threat to the integrity of the data. An outdated software may make the government more vulnerable to viruses, malware and other attacks, which has potential to compromise the integrity of the data.

“This in the end may negatively impact the reliability of the data in Ifmis. This may defeat the whole purpose of investing in the Ifmis where the intention was to strengthen controls in managing public resources.”

Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency executive director Willy Kambwandira earlier said revelations show that the country’s taxes remain vulnerable to abuse.

He said: “It seems there are no genuine commitments to stop this abuse. This could be deliberate and there could be some public officers who are benefiting from this mess. Government needs to walk the talk on public finance management reforms.”

Malawi Local Government Association executive director Hadrod Mkandawire on Wednesday admitted that the expiry of Ifmis contract with Techno Brain was impacting on public finance management in councils.

“In councils when the system is down, there is no immediate support from the centre. There have been efforts to link local Ifmis with the central government but nothing has been done on the ground,” he said.

Recently, the National Audit Office released audit reports of 28 districts on the audit of the 2020/21 Financial Statements, out of which four, Nkhotakota, Chitipa, Dowa and Phalombe, had unqualified opinions. The remaining 24 attained qualified opinion while Neno had an adverse opinion.