Government digital transformation overlaps with overall country digital transformation. It is therefore important for governments to use program or performance budgeting to make sure that expenditure on digital transformation initiatives actually deliver against the national development strategy.
The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated digital government effectiveness in many countries as well as the clear need for digital transformation in many other countries. The Government of Trinidad and Tobago (GoTT), one of FreeBalance’s newest customers, recognized this need and announced an ambitious digital transformation plan.
The strategic inflection point for transformation in the enterprise software market was the point where economies of scale changed to favour nimble over bloated enterprise software companies. There are important lessons to be learnt in why and how this happened.
FreeBalance software – the FreeBalance Accountability Suite™ is not just another Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution. It is what we call Government Resource Planning (GRP): it’s a unique tool for financial and information management for governments. We’ve talked about some of these unique characteristics in the past. It’s now time to provide a comprehensive definition of GRP.
Our innovation and PFM teams worked together to update the checklist and leverage as part of our A-i3+qM methodology that is designed exclusively for government and public finance advisory, implementation, and sustainability services.
At around 20% of total country employment, and 15% of annual GDP in wage bills, salary budget scrutiny, risk management, and spending predictability is critical in government.
The reality is that the public sector is ill-prepared to deal with the opportunities and challenges of government digital transformation. This governance gap is a trillion-dollar annual problem. Poor governance and weak institutions are recognized as the #1 perceived impediment to prosperity and citizen wellbeing.
The notion of technology leapfrog is that developing countries can skip the incremental steps taken for developed countries to modernize. Yet, isn’t government performance management too complex for developing countries? Not necessarily – as we have seen in Timor-Leste where performance dashboards are used and government results provided to the public.
FreeBalance has been involved in PFM reform in developing countries for decades. In our experience, the good practices are more effective than blindly following ‘best practices’.
FreeBalance’s interest in happiness and wellbeing research is based on our belief that there is too much focus on Gross Domestic Product in public policy design.
A lot of governments are still using outdated legacy ERP systems, even though there are better, post-modern Government Resource Planning (GRP) options available. Read on to learn about the advantages of post-modern GRP systems which are customizable to fit the ever-growing need for progressive activation and a lower total cost of ownership.
