The World Bank has announced a six month extension of the first phase of the Ghana Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS).

The project scheduled to end in June this year would now close in December, Mr Ismaila Ceesay, Team Task Leader for World Bank on the GIFMIS project, said during the review of the programme in Accra.

He said the extension was to pave way for the implementation of the Human Resources Management Information System, which was not conceived as part of the programme, to allow pay roll to be generated from a data contained in the system, which would be managed by the Public Service Commission.

He said the review of the first phase was very important as it would help the World Bank to agree with government over the next step of the project and to also deliver on its objectives.

He said the World Bank was satisfied with the progress of work done so far and expressed the hope that the new deadline would be met to pave way for the implementation of other phases.

Mr Seth Terkper, the Minister of Finance commended all stakeholders for supporting the project. He said even though there had been some progress there were challenges that still faced implementation of the project and mentioned connectivity and funding as some of the challenges and called for more support.

GIFMIS was launched in May 2009 as a follow up to the Budget and Public Expenditure Management System Project, which was implemented between 1999 and 2008. The project was designed as Component four of the e-Ghana Project with a pooled fund of US$ 60.26 Million from the World Bank (US$28.44m), Department of International Development (US$ 15.05m), European Union ($12.27m) and Danish International Development Agency ($4.50m).

The Controller and Accountant General’s Department, under the auspices of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, is responsible for the project.