Shiimi bemoans outdated finance ministry structures

Finance minister Ipumbu Shiimi says the Treasury is not adequately structured to properly carry out its mandate as an economic institution.

Shiimi made the comments while giving an update on his ministry’s activities at the Government Information Centre earlier this week.

The ministry’s archaic structure meant that it was not geared for current times, Shiimi said.

“One of the challenges we have [is that] the ministry was established at independence, so, when you look at the structure, we have realised that the current structure that we have – and it has not been renewed for a while – the structure is not fit for purpose,” Shiimi said.

Embrace tech

Addressing this archaic set-up, Shiimi said, may involve moving staff members around to fill gaps where the ministry has shortcomings.

“We realised when we started with this exercise, we have too many administrators in the system and the system needs accountants and economists because it is an economic institution, it is about tax collection and revenue forecasting. So, we have realised that we are lean on the one side, so we have to shift our talents around,” he said.

Shiimi also stressed the need for the processes and systems within the ministry to not be so heavily reliant on manual procedures, and instead embrace technology.

“The other challenge is that some of our processes are still very manual, so I think the future is in digitisation, so we have to automate our processes," he said, adding that "digitisation is a challenge and something we need to pay attention to."