DOHA: A new law to regulate financial activities of the government and public sector organisations (public finance law) is on the anvil, a senior official of the Ministry of Finance said here yesterday.
The proposed legislation aims at helping Qatar develop a long-term investment strategy by setting up a macroeconomic unit.
The aim is also to implement a public investment program whereby identifying state’s major projects is prioritised and methods of their evaluation and control and evaluation of public finance performance are to be developed.
Methods to evaluate and control the expenditure of government bodies and linking such expenditure to major projects, will also be developed. Other objectives include making public finance system competent, ensure classification of government expenditure, and implementing medium-term financial framework.
Plans to enforce a new law were announced by Badr Al Qaed, a senior official from the Finance Ministry, at a conference (annual two-day meeting of Mena-OECD Network) of senior budget officials from Mena-OECD countries.
He said that the Ministry of Finance is currently revitalising the implementation of the financial management information system which links all government bodies through a unified financial system, referring in this respect to the importance of the implementation of this system due to the activation of the state’s general governance frameworks it provides.
Al Qayed praised the effort made by the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) including the exchange of states expertise in different policies which will enable the optimum implementation of policies in line with the special nature of each state.
The agenda of the conference, to be hosted by the Ministry of Finance, aim to promote exchange of common experiences in budget reform field as well as the inter-dialogue between the decision -makers in Middle East and North Africa and OECD countries.
The programmes and budget performance and the finance overall framework issues shall be highlighted in the Doha talks this year as well as the participant countries’ past experiences in this field. The senior budget officials and finance reforms experts in Mena-OECD countries participate in 2013 Doha meeting in addition to training institutes representatives and regional and international organisations.
Speakers from Austria, Sweden, South Korea, Switzerland and Britain will address the conference beside participant representatives form UAE, Yemen, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Turkey, Tunisia, Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine, Qatar News Agency reported yesterday. QNA
