The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has recently hosted a delegation from the Ministry of Finance in Kuwait at its premises in Dubai. The meeting aimed to introduce the visiting delegation to the latest federal government accounting system as well as the different aspects of financial government work in UAE.
The meeting aimed to introduce the visiting delegation to the latest federal government accounting system as well as the different aspects of financial government work in UAE.
HE Saeed Rashid Al Yateem, Assistant Undersecretary of Budget and Revenue at MoF, received the Kuwaiti delegation along with Sumayya Alhamily, Deputy Director of Financial Operations Department, and Abdullah Al Zaabi, Deputy Director the Operations Department at MoF, and a number of executives from the Ministry.
The Kuwaiti delegation included HE Abdul Ghaffar Aqeel Al Awadi, Assistant Undersecretary of the Kuwaiti Ministry of Finance, Hisham Al-Dulaimi, Manager of Budgets of Social and Economic Services, andFahad Al Mutawa, Supervisor of Systems and Monitoring.
HE Saeed Rashid Al Yateem stressed MoF’s commitment to strengthen channels of communication and exchange of expertise with different regional and international entities. The visit reflects the strong relationship and joint cooperation between UAE and Kuwait. HE said: “The Ministry of Finance seeks to enhance UAE’s position in the Gulf Common Market (GCM) and support the country’s policy to strengthen the Gulf economic integration.”
On the first day, MoF reviewed the adopted procedures in developing the efficiency of the federal financial system, which integrates a number of subsystems including supplies, payrolls, budgeting, and financial management. These systems allow the Ministry to practice its areas of specialty in funding federal entities, managing and monitoring financial procedures, and monitoring budget spending granted to federal entities in order to provide high level government services.
The meeting also showcased procedures when preparing zero- based budget on the Hyperion system, applications within one interface, as well as managing payroll and documentation cycle- which begins by preparing purchase orders from different departments, followed by transferring them to the purchasing department to request for quotations from suppliers, their evaluation by the proposals committee, issuing purchase and receipt orders, and finalising the process by paying the supplier.
MoF discussed the unified HR and payroll management system. The meeting also covered e-purchasing systems and data warehouses and their link with federal budget; ensuring usage control, using the correct items and activities, and copying unified and approved contracts and saving them on the system.
On the second day, the Ministry reviewed closing of accounting books and periods on the federal financial system, including budget implementation reports and final accounts. The Ministry also reviewed financial report preparations based on account closure models within the federal financial system, raising compliance reports, book closings, as well as the steps involved in transferring financial data and loading balances on financial system in a chronological order.
MoF introduced participants to the unified financial procedures guidelines of the federal government, which is a main reference to financial departments in federal entities as it provides them with detailed explanation of financial items, accounting guides, latest updates on developing federal financial systems, clarification on the organisational structure of government accounts and related legal tools.
MoF received a number of Arab delegations to introduce them to the Ministry’s experience in designing the financial government work systems, zero-based budget and identifying different areas in preparing and implementing strategies and preparing the general federal budget.