Ms.  Piranti Savitri, CISCAI Financial Officer and Project Assistant (PA), with the assistance of  ASEAN Foundation's (AF)  Finance Officer (FO), Ms. Yussy Agastuty   conducted  a three-country  mission to Lao PDR (Information Technology Research Institute – ITRI), Thailand (National Electronic and Computer Technology Center – NECTEC), and Vietnam (NetNam Corporation), to review implementation of the CISCAI operational activities,  relative to CISCAI Project’s financial/fund management and procurement processes. The financial monitoring visit was conducted from 3 to 14 August 2009,  in those three  countries.

One of  the highlights of  the AF-CISCAI Team’s visit was the  orientation on  the  use of the  newly-launched, web-based  Online   CISCAI e-Procurement System (CePS).  The CePS  orientation session was conducted by Ms. Savitri among  finance and administrative staff   CISCAI’s  institutional partners, the ITRI, NetNam, and NECTEC.  Under the CISCAI Project, the CePS   has replaced the manual  and tedious  bidding procedure.  It is also envisaged  that the CePS  will be able to enhance  the over-all  bidding  processes within the tenure  of the CISCAI project, by providing the   proper and secure venue  for all eligible service and product providers to participate.

 

The financial review and recommendations were presented to the   different country team leaders and project coordinators of each institution, in order to have   better financial management and reporting system that can be easily be monitored, controlled  and secured.  

Likewise, the Team introduced Computerized Fixed Asset Management System that will be implemented  soon  within the term of the   Project, as part of its  enhanced inventory system.

Regular financial and technical review missions are being conducted by the CISCAI Project Coordination Unit (PCU),  to ensure  strict  compliance to the ASEAN Foundation’s financial rules  and regulations  by its various  project collaborators.   (CISCAI-PCU)