Institutional Capacity Assessment of the aids control Program Uganda

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3.8 Accounting, recordkeeping, Cash and banking

3.7 Financial planning and budgeting

Financial planning and budgeting enables an organization or unit to ensure that adequate funds are available at the right time to do its business. ACPs capacity to plan and manage funds looked at the budgeting process, decision making and related financial processes. Participants scored ACP in the 16 questions of this domain. The scores and results are presented below;
Individual % score range: 29 - 86

Group consensus score: 45%

Table 10: Financial Planning & budgeting

Reasons for consensus ranking

Strengths

Summary Indicators of needed improvement

Recommendation

* Fairly good budgeting system but expenditure not tracked according to categories

* Weakness in procurements

* Robust Government financial planning systems in place

* Annual plans and budgets exist which covers different donors

* No comprehensive budget which reflects ACP’s annual plan of income and expenditure but budgets of different projects supported by donors

* Budget information restricted to only a few individuals

* Financial reports exist which provide information on project accounts but does not track expenditure according to categories.

*There is no costed strategic plan and as such there is no link b/w annual and long term budget planning

* Procurement systems weak and fraught with delays

* Some financial decisions often done at level in MOH above ACP and can’t be controlled.

* Develop a costed HSHASP that is aligned to the HSSPIII and the NSP priorities.

* Develop through a participatory process, annual operational plans and budgets which derives from the HSHASP and which incorporates all funding sources

* Build capacity of designated accounting staff to track expenses and provide information in a timely manner.

* Convene periodic program evaluation meetings to review plans, budgets and expenditure

* Build ACP capacity on procurement and contracting

A consensus score of 45% indicates that participants perceive ACP as showing results in terms of financial planning and budgeting. Apart from the existence of annual plans for different donor-supported projects, not much else was mentioned. On the other hand, there appear to be a myriad of issue plaguing financial planning and budgeting in ACP. Central to this is non use of a costed strategic plan in developing annual plans. There is need to integrate program and financial planning at a very strategic level. Secondly, financial decision making at the strategic level is difficult because budgets for individual projects tend to be managed separately and sometimes without reference to the big picture making broad expenditure tracking by objectives or categories very difficult. Financial management training is recommended for relevant ACP staff.

3.8 Accounting, recordkeeping, Cash and banking

This section examined accounting practices, cash handling, internal controls and financial record keeping in ACP. Participants scores based on the 9 questions in this domain are described below.
Individual % score range: 41 - 82

Group consensus score: 75%

Table 11: Accounting, recordkeeping, Cash & Banking

Reasons for consensus ranking

Strengths

Summary Indicators of needed improvement

Recommendation

* Government bureaucracy ensures strong internal controls

* All funds are accounted for separately

* ACP maintains separate accounts for all donor funds

* Accounts are reconciled regularly

* Regular audits are conducted

* Approval systems are strong

* Coding is done using charts of account

* Requisition-payment and reimbursement process is slow

* Poor understanding of financial system by some ACP staff

* ACP management should orient staff on the financial system

Most participants are confident that ACP is doing very well in this domain. A score of 75% indicate that ACP is seen as systematically achieving in accounting, recordkeeping, cash and banking. The strong bureaucratic internal control mechanism is cited as a reason. However some participants believe that long waits and delays are often experienced in reimbursements and this has de-motivated staff and adversely affected activities. Some of the delays was attributed to poor quality of requisitions/documentation and poor knowledge of the system. An orientation of relevant staff in the financial system is recommended. ACP manager mentioned that charts of accounts are used in coding and recording expenses. It is not clear whether this was a government code system or a different system required by donor projects. It is noteworthy however that some of the participants are not knowledgeable about financial matters in ACP and this may have affected the score in this domain.

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