PERMANENT secretaries and controlling officers have resolved and recommended the establishment of a position of a finance director in every Government ministry.

The finance director would be responsible for financial management under the supervision of the permanent secretary.

Secretary to the treasury, Evans Chibiliti, said the resolution was that there should be a position of a director of finance whose function would be separated from those of the permanent secretary.

Mr Chibiliti said the current situation where permanent secretaries were chief executives appointed by the President as well as chief financial directors appointed by the treasury had made it difficult for them to perform well.

The recommendation, which was agreed upon after a two-day workshop for cash controlling officers in Lusaka on Wednesday evening, was aimed at curbing rampant misappropriation of public funds and enhance efficient utilisation of the money.

He was concerned at the requests he was receiving for a supplementary Budget just a month after the approval of the Budget, saying supplementary funds were suppressing expenditure on programmes of other ministries and eroded public confidence in the Budget.

He said to improve the implementation of the programmes, all controlling officers must ensure they developed procurement plans with the assistance of the Zambia National Tender Board.

Earlier, Copperbelt Permanent Secretary Jennifer Musonda who read the resolutions and recommendations at the close of the workshop said a technical committee should be appointed to work out the details of the operationalisation of the office of director of finance and how they would relate with the controlling officer.

Mrs Musonda said controlling officers should discuss the cross sector priorities before the ceilings were set.

There should be an enhancement of capacities in development of procurement plans and ensure that they were aligned with the budget process with more data being provided by the ministry of Finance and National Planning on the proposed treasury department.

She said the budget ceilings should be presented to the MPSAs by August, while realistic profiles should be submitted by MPSAs and once accepted, they should be well profiled and honoured by the ministry of Finance and National Planning.

Any financial support from donors should be well profiled and be part of the planning process and included in initial plans from districts and provinces, while its management and control should be subjected to national financial instruments.

She said the financial management system should be enhanced, integrated and a sustainable maintenance programme put in place to avoid duplication of tasks, while the permanent secretary would be required to rotate staff regularly but only horizontally.