Government of Uganda Receives FreeBalance Public Financial Management Award of Excellence for Data and Process Migration

Recognition for data and process migration presented to the Honourable Prisca B. Mbaguta Sezi, Minister of State for Public Service

Ottawa, Canada (January 19, 2012) – FreeBalance, a leading vendor of Government Resource Planning (GRP) software, is pleased to announce the presentation of the FreeBalance Public Financial Management Award of Excellence to the Government of Uganda for Data and Process Management in a GRP project, represented by the Minister of State for Public Service, the Honourable Prisca B. Mbaguta Sezi. FreeBalance Awards of Excellence were presented at the FreeBalance International Steering Committee (FISC) event held between January 16-18, 2012 in Istanbul, Turkey.

The Government of Uganda selected FreeBalance Accountability Suite, Version 7 to act as an Integrated Personnel and Payroll System (IPPS) to support the Public Service Reform Program (PSRP) after a competitive bid process in 2009. The five stage implementation process is expected to be completed by 2014 nearly 200 sites, including all central government ministries, agencies, departments and local governments. The payroll system will manage a public service workforce of 391,635 employees.

The FreeBalance Civil Service Management set of modules from Version 7 have been successfully implemented by the Government of Uganda. The implementation is currently in the second stage of rollout and is projected to be on time and on budget. This achievement is in contrast the majority of government financial and human resources projects in Africa that have failed to meet functionality or time objectives. The functional scope for this project was the largest for any FreeBalance civil service management project covering payroll, pensions, time and attendance, travel and subsistence, organizational management, recruitment, promotions, training, leave and performance appraisal.

Data and process migration were critical factors to meet the desired “go-live” date. There can be significant challenges migrating large amounts of civil service data. Modern technology is more flexible and can hold more information. The Government of Uganda was able to prepare data to facilitate migration to the new system.

The migration of business processes to an automated Civil Service Management system is also difficult. Government personnel professionals need to map out current civil service processes and decide on process improvement. Civil service processes differ widely among countries making the implementation of Commercial Off-the-Shelf software problematic. Consultations with the Government of Uganda resulted in a configuration that automates and improves business processes but is familiar to the majority of public servants. The Government of Uganda is expected to leverage progressive activation in the FreeBalance Civil Service Management modules to smoothly modernize business processes.

The Government of Uganda was the first customer to implement Version 7 of Civil Service Management. FreeBalance CSM V.7 has also been implemented by the governments of Liberia and Timor-Leste.

About the FreeBalance Public Financial Mangement Awards of Excellence
FreeBalance recognize government customers who have achieved significant improvements in Public Financial Management (PFM). Presented every two years at the FreeBalance International Steering Committee meetings, the awards recognize important governance milestones.

About FreeBalance
FreeBalance helps governments around the world leverage robust Government Resource Planning (GRP) technology to accelerate country growth. FreeBalance is a recognized as leader in fast, adaptable and successful GRP implementations. FreeBalance software manages a global civil service workforce of 1,500,000, and a quarter trillion ($US) annual budgets worldwide. FreeBalance provides software solutions for public financial and human resource management, and supports reform and modernization to improve governance, transparency and accountability. Good governance is required to improve development results. For more information, visit www.freebalance.com.

About FISC
The annual FreeBalance International Steering Committee (FISC) conference runs from January 16 – 18, 2012 in Istanbul, Turkey. FISC provides an interactive forum to exchange Public Financial Management (PFM) good practices among international customers and PFM thought leaders. FISC drives the FreeBalance Accountability Suite Government Resource Planning (GRP) product direction. Previous FISC events were held in Madeira, Portugal (2011); Mt. Tremblant, Canada (2010); Prague, Czech Republic (2009); Cascais, Portugal (2008); and London, United Kingdom (2007).

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