The Abu Dhabi Department of Finance (DoF) held a workshop, with its Government Directorate staff, to integrate expenses incurred by the department’s strategic plans, within the Abu Dhabi Overall Government's budget. The workshop was attended by senior representatives from the DoF and The Boston Consulting Group (which is undertaking the project under the supervision of the Government Performance Management Division - General Secretariat of Abu Dhabi Executive Council). The workshop was held on the 6th of April in Abu Dhabi at the Intercontinental Hotel.
His Excellency Mohammed Sultan Al Hameli, DoF's Executive Director, explained that the workshop was held in line with DoF's commitment to co-ordinate the efforts of all Abu Dhabi government entities to activate performance development and ensure stringent controls on public expenditure.
"The workshop helped our Leadership and partners to be informed on the development programmes of DoF that are planned to achieve better financial performance, especially within the budgeting domain", he added.
Mr. Ahmed Darwish Al Murrar, General Manager of Government Budgeting Directorate, DoF, said that DoF has taken leading initiatives
to promote the financial performance of government entities as per the recommendation and guidelines of Abu Dhabi’s Leadership and the Executive Council to further raise work standards.
Through its pioneering initiatives, DoF has created an advanced mechanism in the last few months to achieve strategic goals to develop the management of Government resources by integrating its functioning and coordination with Government entities to achieve targets set by the Government's general policy agenda which calls for sustainable development of the Abu Dhabi economy.
Dr. Falah Hassan Adday, Economic Expert at DoF, said that budget integration will be implemented across various government bodies to develop a unified strategic approach for growth. This also promotes the culture of work integration, which will lead to better and higher standards of financial performance within the domains of strategic planning and financial resources allocation.
The integration will be based on three levels of annual budgeting: strategic, recurrent and capital, under the Activity Based Budgeting methodology specifically designed to ensure higher financial discipline and better socio-economic benefits.
The workshop discussed the renewed strategic plan for 2009-2013, where all governmental entities must now update their expected costs of their 5 year plans, and finalize their 2009 comprehensive budgets and ensure its alignment with its 2009 targets.
Abu Dhabi Finance Department
Established in 1969, the Abu Dhabi Finance Department plays an important role in providing best of breed financial services. It works in cooperation with the private sector to promote economic prosperity and overall development of Abu Dhabi.
The Finance Department has various departments including Customs, Budgeting, Information Technology, Purchase Management and Human Resources. By adopting the latest processes and technology, the Department has constantly improved its effectiveness.
