On July 17th, 2018, the Minister of Finance and Budget, honourable Calixte Nganongo opened the 5th  meeting of the Piloting Committee  on the information system reform of his department in his office.

The items on the agenda were as follows : assessment  of the action plan of the information system reform,  status of the main reform projects, among which the Integrated  System for the Management of Public Finance,  the Integrated System for the Management of Human Resources and of the payroll (HR/PAYROLL) , the management system of tax (E-TAX), which will replace  the SYSTAF and the unique identification number  (UIN). The last item was on the taking stock of the proceedings  of the four committees  in charge of the centralization  of data of the Tax automated processing system for the tax and lands directorate,  the improvement  of the automated customs system(ACS) software for the customs and indirect tax directorate, the software on the initiative for transparency in the field of extractive industries and the follow up system of payment of the money owed to the State by the Department of Natural Resources.

As regard the assessment  of the action plan on the reform , the Ministry of Finance and Budget  is now, among other things, installing the optical fiber so as to connect administrations, a project financed by the World Bank. The goal is first to connect  the websites of the Minister of Health,  the Office Congolais d'Informatique (OCI), the Customs hydrocarbons Office in Mpila , the Initiative for transparency and good governance  in the field of extractive industries, the big companies unit, the medium companies unit and Brazzaville center. The second phase  will consist in  extending the fiber for connecting administrations by integrating tax and customs centers  of Brazzaville and Pointe Noire(reform project of  the public sector bodies),  and promote the installation of  the Automated Customs System software  and Customs one stop services across the country, creating a module enabling  the follow up  and the management of  goods stocks and  designing another module for the follow up and management  of customs privileges and tax exemption.

As the participants reviewed the third item on the agenda, they noted that  the centralization of  SYSTAF data basically consisted   in collecting data  from other tax websites and make it a one data base, duplicate the data of decentralized websites of the Tax and Lands Directorate to the Data center, so that  they can be checked in real time by the services of the Tax and Domain Directorate.

As regard the status of  the main reform projects, the Ministry  has already got an integrated solution for the management of revenues and expenditure by taking into 

account the guidelines of CEMAC. The achievements related to the implementation of the SIGFIP which was launched on January 29, 2016, they were the design of new techniques related to the recording of revenues release, following the new model suggested by  the Tax and Domain Directorate ; the drafting of a new planning for producing  SIGFIP in relation to the works carried out, the configuration  and the commissioning of Exalogic software.

The Minister is happy with the process under way

" As a whole, the implementation of the projects is being made smoothly, the Minister said.  We are learning from the Rwandan experience who have been successful  in securing State revenues  through the computerization of the excise departments. A delegation of Congolese MPs is now in Kigali, where they will stay  from 13-20 July, 2018 so that they can see by themselves what things are like. Actually, without computerization, it will be difficult to protect, even less to master  public finance. We wish that  the reforms be carried out very quickly and appropriately in Congo, so as to catch up with the delay  in the field. It is time  we stop collecting and releasing  State funds by hand. Better late than never.  Nevertheless, we are happy for having made a good choice" said the one who initiated the reform and is chairman of the Steering  committee.

Press Department of the Ministry of Finance