New development: Government accounting reforms in southern Africa—lessons from Malawi

IMPACT

This article examines the impact of integrated financial management information systems (IFMIS) implementation and business process re-engineering (BPR) in developing economies. Implementing an IFMIS will streamline manual tasks, automate processes and facilitate decision-making in government financial management with the assistance of BPR. This article will be helpful to practitioners and policy-makers in managing potential obstacles during the implementation and adoption of IFMIS and BPR in least developed countries (LDCs).

ABSTRACT

Implementing business process re-engineering (BPR) through integrated financial management information systems (IFMIS) can improve financial processes and organizational performance in least developed countries (LDCs). To ensure its successful adoption, however, in-depth research needs to be conducted into the challenges, facilitators and best practices related to its use in local authorities. This article contributes to the literature with a case study on Malawi.

KEYWORDS:

• Accounting reform
• business process engineering
• financial management systems
• least developed countries (LDCs)
• local government
• Malawi

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joseph Amazuwa Chirwa

Joseph Amazuwa Chirwa is a Teaching Assistant of Public Administration and a study abroad associate at Northern Arizona University, USA. His main research interests are PFM, the political economy of development and public sector reforms.