Financial Responsibilities

As a department head, the CDO has financial responsibilities. The Chief Digital Officer (CDO) carries significant financial responsibilities, including budget planning for the upcoming year.

Budgeting responsibilities:

In the process of defining the next year's budget in October of the previous year, the CDO needs to consider various aspects:

Budget Planning: Assessing the IT department's needs, including operational expenses, new projects, upgrades, software/hardware requirements, cybersecurity measures, staff training, and other relevant expenses.

Forecasting: Predicting and estimating the costs based on past expenses, expected growth, technological advancements, and any upcoming projects or initiatives.

Allocating Resources: Determining the allocation of financial resources to different areas within the IT department, prioritising strategic initiatives while also ensuring operational efficiency.

Regarding the budget submission and integration into the overall Ministry budget, there should be variations in how it's accounted for, depending on the Ministry’s organisation.

Some Ministries prefer a specific line item in the budget dedicated solely to IT projects. This delineates the funds explicitly allocated for IT operations, projects, and maintenance.

In other cases, the IT budget should be integrated into a more general expense category. This could include various administrative or operational costs beyond IT, making it part of the broader operational expenditure.

The decision to place the IT budget in a dedicated line or within general fees should depend on the organisational structure, accounting practices, and the Ministry's preferences for budget categorization.

The budgeting process depends on whether it is an ordinary budget (provided by MINECOFIN) or it is through the Development Partners.

Ordinary budget: from MINECOFIN

Figure 13: Budget planning procedure for government funding

In addition, CDOs plan how to spend the budget and report on how the budget is spent.

Via DPs

Figure 14: Budget planning procedure for DPs funding

*Either reimbursement against invoice or reimbursement after disbursement, or disbursement directly by the donor to the Ministry.

Following the annual budget approval, the CDO oversees the implementation of IT projects' budget allocation. Occasionally, funds may need to be redirected to address urgent Ministry needs. In such instances, the CDO restructures IT project priorities to reallocate resources accordingly.

Additionally, the CDO holds the responsibility of greenlighting IT expenditures before payments are made to providers.

For as long as a project falls within the remit of its ministerial department, the CDO is responsible for planning, implementing and reporting on the use of funds.