Executive Summary

This is the report for the consultancy to carry out a comprehensive need assessment for the
Ministry of Planning and Budget (MEPB) on the use of Oracle Release 12. Findings from the
assessment is intended to be used to update or modify the configuration of the oracle
implementation done so as to deliver specific functionalities required by MEPB in it operations.
It is also intended to determine training needs of the ministry and recommend training package
that will address the specific requirement of the officers of the MEPB. The report has been
classified into four areas summarized below:

Functionality Analysis
Oracle Public Sector Budgeting PSB provides a complete and integrated solution that
enables users to prepare and maintain a comprehensive budget that includes position
budgeting for personnel services, general operating, and capital budget components.
However the staff of MEPB has not been able to take full advantage of these
functionalities either because they are not currently available to them or they lack the
capacity to utilize the functions. Some of the functionalities highlighted in this regard
include:
Excel Add-ins that enables direct interfacing of Microsoft excel to PSB
Definition of budget stages to allow MEPB to take snapshot of a worksheet at
various stages of the budget development process. This setup step is required by the
system to enable it keep different versions of budget worksheet.
Budget constraint/control; this functionalities ensures that budget entry do not exceed
budget ceiling indicated in the budget envelops handed to MDAs and also ensure
that actual spending do not go beyond the budget amount entered

Usage Analysis
Another area of concern for MEPB is how the oracle application is been put to use.
Currently the system seem to serve as backup as transactions are still been done
on sources outside the system
Transactions initially entered on paper are only entered on the system at later
dates in batches
The impact of this is that real time and reliable reports cannot be obtained from
the system

Reporting need Assessment

One of the key expectation of the management of MEPB is the ability of it top officers to
have better visibility to happening in the Ministry. The PS for instance wants information
at the torch of a button from oracle without having to depend on anyone. Such reports as:
Budget performance Report
Funds availability report
Budget reports etc
This reports even where available are not currently reliable because transactions are not
been posted to the application as they occur.

This document is Classified as: PRIVATE

Training Requirement/Gap Analysis

To deliver the expected return on the huge investment of LASG in oracle application and
technology it is imperative that users of the application be adequately empowered to use
it. Training and re training is one way of this empowerment. As indicated in previous
study done in this regards, lack of adequate training for the staff of MEPB remain one of
the key issues affecting the effective usage of oracle application, staff that were
previously trained have been posted out of the ministry to completely different functions,
the knowledge they acquired in those trainings were not transferred to others within the
ministry before they left.
Since the completion of the upgrade of oracle application to release 12 no formal training
has been held to enable users get familiar with the new functionalities that came with the
upgrade.
Recommendation Brief
MOST/MEPD should have soft alliance implement the Microsoft Excel interface
and PSB excel add-in. Since Microsoft excel is a familiar application to most LASG
staff working in PSB directly from a spreadsheet will greatly encourage usage
MOST should also ask soft alliance review the budget stages defined in PSB to
ensure that the system maintain a version for each stage as this is currently not
happening
MOST/MEPB should consider the option of Oracle University courses for PSB and
General Ledger some superusers within MEPB.
LASG should consider including posting of transaction directly on oracle as part of
the state financial regulation possibly back by a legislation to ensure compliance and
facilitate real-time reporting

This document is Classified as: PRIVATE