EAMIS toward acceptance phase

In a meeting held in September, with participation from WB team, EAMIS team, NAIS staff and the CFCU, two main topics were discussed: (i) the status of the final Operational Acceptance Certificate (OAC), and (ii) where we stand on the post-warranty contract procedures to be carried out by the CFCU.

Regarding the OAC, the working group presented their concerns to the WB, in particular the need to receive the source code from the vendor as part of the contract obligations. In addition, it was proposed by the WB team the possibility to organize a demo session together with Synergy in 2-3 weeks’ time in order to check the completion of the conditions listed in the Conditional OAC issued in July of last year. The online session was held between EAMIS working group and Synergy team, during which were discussed inter alia the integration with the WB CC database, a process/activity currently ongoing and progressing at a steady pace, with frequent back-and-forth feedback from both Synergy and WB team.

The CFCU assured they are working on the selection of the working group that will draft the ToRs of the post-warranty contract. Moreover, the selection procedure will be direct contracting due to the nature of the service.

On the other hand, Synergy, the EAMIS developing company, has notified they will be ready to deliver source code of the system after signature of an NDA with the Ministry. They already sent the NDA for signature to MFE. The NDA is expected to be signed soon, once the internal procedure in the ministry for appointment of the appropriate-level official is confirmed by the top management.

November 13, 2019 by Alma Kushova 0

IPSIS Training of Trainers (TOT)

The Training of Trainers course, first week of second phase for IPSIS took place from 4 November to 8 November 2019 in Tirana at Protik Center. The training was organized by IPSIS team led by Department of Development and Good Governance at Prime Minister Office (DDGG) and performed by IPSIS JV. The training infrastructure was fully functional offering in a dedicated IPSIS test environment and technical support was provided by local provider of IPSIS JV, IKUBInfo during users registration process and training practice sessions in collaboration with IPSIS local consultants.

IPSIS JV provider is joint of companies (Synergy International and IKUBinfo). Synergy International who is developing IPSIS was established in USA and is now based in Armenia with a portfolio of IT solutions applied in 60 countries.  It has been working closely with IPSIS team to design and implement the system. Core IPSIS team has been trained and is currently running the Training of Trainers course. Civil servants from several Line Ministries who will have an administrator role for each institution took part in the training. They will be able later on to train other colleagues in their respective institutions and departments in order to ensure full usage of IPSIS and smooth transition from the old system.

November 13, 2019 by Alma Kushova 0

IPS Piloting and Training with Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy

Another piloting and training session took place on 16 October with the representatives of Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy organized by IPSIS team. The aim was to check the accuracy of data and re-enter some of those coming from the users of first level (registrants/ specialists) in order to have a successful piloting. During the session it was tested the upload of strategic documents to IPSIS, as well as draft strategies and/or action plans where available. The users were guided by IPSIS team through all steps of uploading the documents. There were around 20 people taking part in this training. It was a live and interactive session with everyone participating actively and asking question. The piloting and training are an important component of successfully adoption of IPSIS system in the work of public administration.

November 13, 2019 by Alma Kushova 0

Ministry of Agriculture first pilot for IPSIS

In the framework of IPSIS piloting and training, a series of information and training sessions are being organized by IPSIS team with the Line Ministries. The first one was held on 25 September by IPSIS team at the Ministry of Agriculture. The session lasted more than 2 hours and saw participation of tens of users.  The session aimed at testing and training IPSIS by uploading of strategic documents from the ministry and going through process of approval.

A demonstration of the system logic and how it is related to the workflow and processes was given by Mrs. Anila Cili, expert at IPSIS. She explained how the system is adapted to accommodate the process of uploading, revising and approving the strategy and linking it with MTBP.

The system was accessed live by several representatives of Ministry of Agriculture. They were assisted by IPSIS team members to register with their credential of government gateway. The system is designed with a single login.

Three levels of hierarchy were demonstrated in place. One user per level was registered and some data were uploaded in order to test the system and familiarize the users with it. The levels were as follows: Policy specialist; Middle level management as well as high level of management. The training went very well and the users took part actively in the session. This was the first pilot Ministry to test and use IPSIS.

November 13, 2019 by Alma Kushova 0

EAMIS Integration with other systems

Part of EAMIS system implementation are the integrations with other governmental systems, such as AFMIS, IPSIS and ATRAKO. Connectivity with these systems will be achieved through the Government Gateway platform and the underlying infrastructure is already implemented and tested, along with the technical specifications of the web services that will be used for data exchange between systems. The teams are performing final retouches regarding the data exchanges between the systems before finalizing the integration.

Apart from governmental systems, EAMIS will be connected and receive projects’ data from Development and Integration Partners’ systems, such as the World Bank Client Connection. The teams have already initiated testing on Production environments for both systems and expect to complete this task soon.

On the other hand, it is expected that for few Development and Integration Partners, data regarding projects implemented in Albania will be retrieved by the IATI (International Aid Transparency Initiative) platform. IATI is undergoing a restructuring of their Datastore API and integration with this platform will resume once this new API is fully developed.

November 13, 2019 by Alma Kushova 0

AFMIS and HRMIS integration in progress

AFMIS team is working jointly with HRMIS toward the development of integration between two systems AFMIS and HRMIS. Pilot testing will follow with the aim to going live with this interface in 2020.  This development will help in automating the payment of salaries for civil servants. 

Changes to the Treasury Bill transfer process have been discussed with AKSHI, DoPA and the Joint Venture that maintains the HRMIS system and an initial evaluation was made that required the development of a separate module for these operations. It was agreed that at this stage, only posting the treasury bill is necessary.
 For this, a testing period was granted, and successful tests have been made, in posting dummy data from HRMIS to AFMIS via the GG interface.

Now the implementation phase will begin, and according to the agreements between the institutions the time to go live will be communicated.

The planned changes will make possible posting the treasury file from HRMIS to AFMIS by replacing the existing functions of HRMIS.

 

November 13, 2019 by Alma Kushova 0

AFMIS integration with other systems

AFMIS is expected to be integrated with other systems, herein we are updating on the status of some of them.

The communication on QBZ/IPSIS interface is in process and the fields are agreed with PM legal Department, QBZ institution, IPSIS and NAIS teams. The communication is followed in at technical and vendor level. QBZ vendor has delivered the API document. IPSIS JV is developing the web service end point and API document which should be shared with QBZ vendor in order integrate both to GG and follow with testing phase.
Treasury department at MoFE has concluded a technical solution with APP for the integration of EPS with AGFIS.

The software company is working with the implementation of the technical solution. Integration of APP (Albanian Procurement Portal) with AGFIS is very important component because it will ensure that only budget institutions that have available funds can undertake procurement process. On the other hand, this integration enables every user of the Public Investment Module Management in AFMIS to get information from APP about stages of procurement and funds available for a specific project.

November 13, 2019 by Alma Kushova 0

IPS Piloting and Training with Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy

IPS Piloting and Training with Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy Another piloting and training session took place on 16 October with the representatives of Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy. The aim was to check again the data and re-enter some of the data especially those coming from the users of first level (registrants/ specialists) in order to have a successful piloting. During the session it was tested the upload to IPSIS of strategic documents, draft strategies and/or action plans where available. The users were guided by IPSIS team through all steps of successfully uploading the documents. There were around 20 people taking part in this training. It was a live and interactive session with everyone participating actively and asking question. The piloting and training is an important component of successfully adoption of IPSIS system in the work of public administration.
October 18, 2019 by Alma Kushova 0

AFMIS Training sessions

A series of training sessions have taken place for AFMIS. On 6th of May AFMIS team started the PIM and MTBP module training with LM.

On 5th of June started the training of TDOs/ Web Portal and AGFIS for Electronic Archive at MoFE and it was completed on 28th of June according to the training plan.

While another series of training took place on 4th of July.  It was the training of AGFIS online BI’s started the training on Electronic Archive for justified financial documentation attachment. The training is completed successfully on 12 July 2019.

The training process was considered very challenging due to the big number of staff to be trained (all line ministries, central institutions, Treasury District Offices (36 TDO’s) and all general government institutions (around 1370 budgetary institutions around Albania)) and low capacity of Treasury department. Nevertheless this challenge was overcome thanks to the rigorous and strict planning of training ahead in time.

October 1, 2019 by Alma Kushova 0
AFMIS roll-out progress

EAMIS Trainings

As part of the implementation of the activities for the development of the External Assistance Management Information System (EAMIS), a series of training sessions were conducted in May 2018 by the developer of the system for the key users of the system. Participants were from the various Development and Integration Partners (DIPs) in Albania, line ministries, government agencies as well as members of the National Agency of Information Society (NAIS).

The training aimed at ensuring the sustainability of the External Assistance Management System (EAMIS) and focused mainly on the system usage to address the information management needs on external aid management and development cooperation activities in Albania.

In 2019, upon request by various DIPs focal points, a series of refreshers training sessions were conducted by the EAMIS Unit in the Ministry of Finance and Economy during the Spring-Summer period. The main focus of the training sessions was to introduce focal points, both existing and newcomers, to EAMIS with a view to familiarise them with the data entry procedures and requirements.

The refreshers training sessions were catered to the specific needs of each DIP and were held in their premises. More precisely, the DIPs that benefited from the refreshers training are the following: (i) UN group of agencies (17); Austrian Development Agency (ADA); EBRD; OSCE PiA; Swiss Embassy. In addition, a training session was conducted for the staff of the treasury department in the MFE.

October 1, 2019 by Alma Kushova 0

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