As part of the ongoing structural reforms undertaken by the State of Senegal through Act III of decentralization, the Municipal Development Agency (ADM), in collaboration with the Directorate General of Public Accounting and the Treasury (DGCPT), organized a strategic workshop in Saly dedicated to the introduction of program budgeting in the execution of the budgets of local authorities, through the GFILOC software.

This workshop is part of the dynamics of the Support Programme for Municipalities and Agglomerations of Senegal (PACASEN), implemented since 2019 with the support of the World Bank and the French Development Agency (AFD), and recently strengthened by additional funding approved on June 22, 2024.

Adopted by decree no. 2023-2161 of November 6, 2023, the new financial system for local authorities introduces a major innovation: the budgeting of investments according to program authorizations (PA) and payment appropriations (PA). This reform marks the shift from a budget based on resources to a program budget, founded on performance, multi-year planning, and results.

"We are solving an old issue related to the multi-year programming of investments by local authorities. Until now, investments were programmed for a single year while their execution was spread over several fiscal years, which posed a real problem of monitoring and performance," explained Amoro Ntabi Badji, director of the local public sector at the DGCPT.

GFILOC, a central tool of the reform

Developed by the DGCPT with the support of PACASEN, the GFILOC local government finance management software is now a key tool for supporting this transition. After two years of operation, the authorities deemed it necessary to strengthen the capacities of users—local government staff, state representatives, and Treasury accountants—through targeted training sessions.

Through this workshop, the ADM and the DGCPT intend to support local authorities in the effective appropriation of the programme budget and in the optimal use of GFILOC, in order to sustainably improve the management of local public investments.

In addition, these training courses aim to improve mastery of the software, to evaluate its operation and to propose avenues for improvement, particularly in connection with the new requirements of PACASEN, additional funding, which emphasizes consistency between investment planning (PTI/PAI) and their budgetary translation in the initial budget (BP).

The workshop also provided an opportunity to present GFILOC's new features related to local investment management: integration of AP-CP, monitoring of budget execution, reporting of expenses, budgeting of depreciation and articulation with financing such as FECT and PACASEN.

"The programme budget will allow local authorities to be accountable, not only to technical and financial partners, but above all to the people who elected them. It offers better traceability of investments, more transparency and a clear vision of the expected results," Mr. Badji explained.

Aligned with the Senegal 2050 Vision, the additional funding for PACASEN, amounting to 101.7 million euros, now integrates the dimension of climate change and strengthens performance indicators, in particular the mandatory minimum condition no. 1 (MMC 1), which will now be assessed on the effective coherence between PTI, PAI and budget.