Nepal Government to Use Software to Monitor Local Finances

The central government plans to monitor the income and expenditure of the local units and provinces by using a computer software called SUTRA – Sub-National Treasury Regulatory Application, reports The Kathmandu Post.

The details:

• Sutra has been installed by the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) Secretariat at seven provinces and all 753 metropolitan and sub-metropolitan cities, municipalities and rural municipalities.
• Sutra is a web-based software developed and maintained by the PEFA Secretariat, a body under the Ministry of Finance.
• The implementation of the Sutra software was approved last November.
• The PEFA Secretariat will roll out both online and offline models of Sutra for usage even in absence of Internet.

What they are saying:

• Sutra is designed to increase consistency of financial reporting across all governmental bodies and aid those bodies to formulate plans on resource mobilization and budget allocations for various projects and programs.

• “This will help the central government to assess the needs of sub-national governments accordingly,” said Pefa member secretary Murari Niraula.

• “Launching Sutra is an important step in implementing and optimizing the decision-making process at the federal government through timely and consistent supply of information from sub-national governments,” said Niraula.
• “We will continue to train officials at the local and provincial levels to get them acquainted with Sutra. This, we believe, will strengthen administrative federalism,” said Damodar Regmi, coordinator of the Pefa Secretariat.