The Papua New Guinea Fire and Rescue Service will no longer be printing manual cheques for its service providers following the launch of its Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) payment system yesterday.
It is aimed at improving its financial management and payment processes.
The event took place yesterday at the PNG Fire and Rescue Service headquarters in Port Moresby. It was attended by staff and officials from the Department of Finance.
Chief of the PNG Fire and Rescue Service, Bill Roo, described the occasion as small but significant for the organization.
“With the cheque runs we have been having issues. Sometimes we got our cheques cancelled, sometimes they were disowned and then my finance team were running up and down,” Mr. Roo told local media.
He said the Fire and Rescue Service had previously been using the self-accounting system of the Department of Provincial and Local Government Affairs and had been working towards having its own self-accounting system.
According to Mr. Roo, the organization had also wanted to establish a system that would allow it to print its own cheques, but the transition to electronic payments had come at the right time.
“It is very timely that we are now moving into electronic fund transfer,” he said.
Mr. Roo said the Fire and Rescue Service was particularly pleased with the transition because of the expected changes to cheque payments within the banking system.
“I’m very excited, I’m very happy,” he said.
He explained that the previous cheque-based process had sometimes resulted in payments being delayed, particularly when cheques were queued for approval or cancelled.
“Sometimes checks get cancelled on the way and then we have to carry over payments to the next financial year which was a cumbersome burden to the organization,” Mr. Roo said.
He said the new system would help ease some of those difficulties and thanked the Department of Finance for supporting the rollout.
“I’m very happy and thankful that we have a new system in place,” he said.
Mr. Roo also acknowledged the work undertaken by the Department of Finance team in preparing the Fire and Rescue Service for the new system, including staff training, engagement with banks and trial runs.
“Margaret and the team have been very supportive, they have tirelessly come over the last week, and they have put into place how the system will operate, training our staff, liaising with the banks, trial runs,” he said.
NCD Integrated Financial Management System Rollout Coordinator Margaret Topas thanked the PNG Fire and Rescue Service for accepting the system.
Ms. Topas said IFMS is the financial management system being rolled out across government agencies, while the current rollout also includes EFT as a method of payment.
“We have rolled out and now we are into rolling out the EFT as the method of payment,” Ms. Topas said.
She said the Fire and Rescue Service was among the many government departments and agencies accepting the system.
The Department of Finance team had spent the previous week working with the Fire and Rescue Service to prepare for the rollout, including training staff, liaising with banks and conducting trial runs.
The event ended with the official activation of the EFT system, signaling the Fire and Rescue Service’s readiness to begin processing payments electronically.