Public Financial Management System (2009): Strengthening Transparency and Efficiency in Public Expenditure
The Public Financial Management System (PFMS) is a web-based platform developed and operated by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA), Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, to track and manage the flow of government funds in real time. It began in 2009 as the Central Plan Schemes Monitoring System (CPSMS), a Central Sector Scheme under the erstwhile Planning Commission, at a time when the government had no reliable way of knowing how much of the money released for its Plan schemes had actually reached implementing agencies or been spent, since expenditure was typically reported only after the fact, through conventional accounting cycles that could lag actual spending by months. CPSMS was conceived to close that gap, with a narrow original mandate: tracking funds released under Plan schemes and reporting expenditure in real time, rather than months later.
