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.
By Rami Abdelrahman
© Jordan Times 2004
