Business

Finance Ministry implements Self-Assessment pilot in a selected government entities

Samar

The Ministry of Finance (MOF) launched the Financial Control Support and Development Initiative, which aims to develop MoF's control role; by keeping abreast of the latest global financial control practices. Besides, utilizing the technological developments that Saudi Arabia has delivered to further the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030.

The Self-Assessment's pilot implementation project, derived from the initiative; aims to conduct field studies on the applicability of self-assessment in government entities to enhance their efficiency of control; and promote roles, responsibilities and principles of accountability and transparency for financial control related parties.

During the project, the efficiency of the internal control systems in the selected government entities assessed and the internal control of the financial operations designed and tested to ensure their compatibility with government sector system and to develop a plan to upscale efficiency of control for every entity based on the assessment results.

In addition, the best global practices; international experiences and World Bank's recommendations reviewed to introduce control techniques that fit the nature of the government sector.

The Ministry of Finance concluded from the pilot that a flexible control mix (direct control, self-assessment; digital and technological control and report control) needs to be created to be applied to all government entities, depending on their maturity control level.

This contributes to raising efficiency of control in the government sector; raising awareness of internal control among related parties. In addition to strengthening the control responsibility of government entities; improving governance and financial control procedures, as well as converting manual procedures into automated procedures.