Piloting of the IT System for Budget Planning Progressing Well

The piloting of an automated information system for online interaction with key spending units (AIS “KSU-WEB”) has been ongoing for two months and is continuing according to plan.

The system is being developed by order of the Ministry of Finance and with the financial support of the EU Public Finance Management Support Programme for Ukraine (EU4PFM). 

To date, the second group of key spending units (KSUs) has been involved in piloting, along with institutions included in their subordinate network.

The first group of pilots, which began on October 12, includes 4 KSUs with their subordinate institutions. They have already mastered most of the budget operations performed using the system, provided an assessment of its functionality, and will complete the piloting at the end of December.

The second group of participants in the pilot project included 34 KSUs and institutions that are part of their subordinate network. The first training session was already held for them, focusing on providing a general introduction to the system and establishing the initial settings required for further work. Currently, 130 institutions of various levels and more than 500 users — employees of these institutions — are registered on the educational platform. The process of registering KSU subordinate institutions and their employees continues, as attracting lower-level managers to budget planning functions using the new IT system is one of the tasks of the pilot project.

“We ask that you be as meticulous and proactive as possible during the piloting phase. Your comments and suggestions will assist us in developing a new IT system that will be as convenient as possible for the KSU and will encompass all business processes involved in interacting with the Ministry of Finance at every stage of the budget process. Our aim is to ensure that this system becomes an effective tool for managing budget resources, thereby enhancing the transparency and efficiency of the budget process in Ukraine,” noted Deputy Minister of Finance for Digital Development, Digital Transformations, and Digitalization Oleksandr Hrubiian.

The training and piloting process is implemented by the state institution “Open Public Finance,” which is also the developer of the system. The educational platform is a complete copy of the real system but without the legal force of the documents created in it. Users are united in a common chat for constant communication with the implementation team and each other. Therefore, pilots’ comments and suggestions are immediately carefully analysed and, if appropriate, implemented into changes in the system software. For user comfort, the implementation team has also created a virtual space with text and video instructions that are updated in sync with changes to the system.

“The implementation of the IT system for budget planning marks a significant step in reforming Ukraine’s public finance management. It brings us closer to our ultimate goal of EU accession by enhancing management efficiency, ensuring transparency, fostering accountability, and enabling medium-term budget planning”, added EU4PFM Team Leader Jurgita Domeikiene.

The IT system is expected to become fully operational in August 2024. As a result, the preparation of the state budget for 2025 will be conducted using this new system.