Jordan Times
Thursday, September 23, 2004
Ministry of Finance formulates
new vision for 'efficient, effective fiscal management'
By Rami Abdelrahman
AMMAN — The Ministry of Finance aims at “implementing a fiscal management that
is efficient and effective” under a new vision formulated recently by Finance
Minister Mohammad Abu Hammour and senior officials of his ministry.
According to the minister, the mission is “to provide for development needs of
the Kingdom through securing financial resources, determining the expenditure
priorities, administering the public debt, managing transactions and commitments
as well as offering suitable services for the public and private sectors in a
way that would contribute to the improvement of the standard of living of the
citizens.”
He indicated in an exclusive interview with The Jordan Times, that an overall
startegy is being finalised following an expanded meeting in Aqaba that grouped
all the directors of the ministry for examining and studying “the vision,
mission, achievements and constraints until 2012.”
“A small committee has pursued the results of the Aqaba gathering and developed
objectives, strategies and indicators for progress monitoring, which will all be
reviewed in an internal workshop,” he said.
These proposals will be presented to the Cabinet within the context of the
Public Sector Reform, Abu Hammour added.
The minister remarked that each department will work out a detailed strategic
plan in institutional workshops and that the implementation of the strategy will
be monitored through an improved reporting system.
He pointed out that a second expanded meeting will be held next year to assess
progress and to modify the process in light of new developments.”
The action plan outlined by the minister included several principles such as
“dealing with causes to prevent the symptoms; minimising the personal judgement
in assesments; institutionalisation of operations, teamwork and not relying on a
single person to do the job as well as creating job satisfaction and suitable
working environment.”
Other principles cover capacity building, simplifying the operation processes
and providing better services; computerising the operations within the
e-Government project; investment encouragement; and financial commitment.”
However, the minister did not rule out some constraints while working to achieve
the new vision, especially in the availability and the flow of information,
which he described as “significant constraint.”
“This point has been particularly important for tasks requiring cooperation
between departments or between reform task forces and departments. Additionally,
the monitoring and evaluation — especially in the form of reports — has been
insufficient,” Abu Hammour explained.
According to the minister, the conditions for the success in implementing the
ministry's vision, mission and achieving its objectives depend on the four main
conditions: Commitment to accomplishing the reform in a timely manner,
strengthened coordination between concerned reform task forces and the various
departments, regular progress reports covering both regular activities and
reform efforts and commitment to institutionalisation in operations done within
the ministry's departments and related directorates.
The minister indicated that steady steps towards institutionalisation have been
achieved as committees were established both within the ministry and in the
related departments to draft, evaluate, approve and implement principles and
standards.
Among other accomplishments, the ministry initiated a cooperation council with
the private sector in order to develop and enhance the private sector's role in
the economy.
It has also signed several agreements with local banks to collect revenues
automatically to facilitate public revenue collection,
In order to raise the quality of public investment management, he mentioned that
a unit was set up at the Jordanian Investment Corporation to evaluate
governmental investments and to set standards and principles for the selection
of government representatives on boards of directors of some companies.
A financial policy committee has been established to follow up on current
financial and managerial reforms and submit solutions to accelerate the process.