Cabinet Approves Contract for Procurement of Financial Management Accounting System

Cabinet has approved the award of a US$270,000 contract, under a sole source system of procurement, for a financial management accounting system from RMP Associates Limited.
Information Minister Senator Burchell Whiteman made the announcement at yesterday’s (January 31) post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House.
Providing background to the deal, Senator Whiteman informed that in 1991 the Ministry of Finance and Planning had acquired the well-known Financial Management Information System (FMIS), which has since been in use in that Ministry as well as others.
This system, Senator Whiteman explained, “essentially recognizes the cash accounting system which has been in operation for some time. However, like all systems it requires an update and the particular update was required to have the capability of conforming with International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS)”.
He further noted that such a system provided for accrual accounting, which was a system that was being adopted worldwide as well as in Jamaica.
Subsequently, the Ministry of Finance obtained permission from the National Contracts Commission to engage in sole sourcing of this particular software. “The reason being that the company that provided the FMIS in the first place had developed a particular software, which would fit precisely into what already existed,” the Information Minister said.
“It was therefore good sense to negotiate with such a provider and RMP Associates has been awarded the contract, and I am very pleased to say that this is a Jamaican company,” he added.