Evaluation of Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) in Malawi

The purpose of this study is to evaluate Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) in Malawi local governments. In 2009, Malawi Government decided to automate public finance management (PFM) in all 36 sites of local governments. The government acquired and installed Serenic Navigator Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). Among the main objectives of IFMIS is to ensure effective control and proper accountability over allocation and utilization of government resources. Eight years after implementation of IFMIS in Malawi local governments, there are still critical challenges in PFM. First of all, IFMIS is still used as an accounting package rather than an ERP. There are delays in production of reports from the system and the reports lack credibility. The other challenge is over expenditure on budget items, but Serenic Navigator is one of ERP with strong internal controls. This study finds out these challenges and their sources. The first author was involved in the data collection from 15 IFMIS sites in 2015. The data collection adopted the following methods; desk review i.e. reviewing documents related to business processes analysis, tender documents, functional requirements, user acceptance tests, government-vendor contracts, reports produced from the systems, project charter, and other documents related to IFMIS. The team also conducted interviews with different users such as district commissioners, financial controllers, procurement officers, store/inventory officers, revenue officers, projects officers, cashiers, and IT officers. Vendors were also interviewed to find out the approaches used in system design, implementation and maintenance. The team accessed the system through system administrators to check out audit trail, internal controls (budget controls), and other configuration such as user matrix, and chart of accounts, budget planning and management. Findings such as many system administrators, untrained users, unused modules, important process that are not automated, lack of systems interfaces, lack of IT policies and sharing of passwords contribute to the inefficiency of Malawian local governments IFMIS. This study will add new insights to the field of e-government research, especially on the challenges caused by approached adopted in design, implementation and maintenance of IFMIS.