Uganda Receives Debt Data Validation & Training

Following a request from the Bank of Uganda (BoU), MEFMI conducted a Debt Data Validation and Training in-country workshop. The workshop was attended by debt management officials from the Bank and some officials from the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (MoFPED). The workshop took place in Entebbe, Uganda, from 29 July to 5 August 2013.

The request for debt validation was premised on the need to review the quality of Uganda’s US$3.5 billion external debt database comprising 274 loans. This follows the country’s transition from version 5.3 to 6.0 of UNCTAD’s Debt Management and Financial Analysis System (DMFAS) which both BoU and MoFPED use to record and report on public external debt.  The BoU also wanted its back office staff from the Statistics Department trained on validation concepts, principles and practical use of the DMFAS.

The target group for the workshop was back office staff in debt management. These were drawn mainly from BoU’s Statistics Department and from MoFPED’s Treasury Services Department (TSD) and Macroeconomic Policy Department (MPD) that use DMFAS. A total of 12 participants attended the workshop, of whom half or 50% were female.

The workshop was facilitated by Mr Tongai Tarubona of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (Regional DMFAS Trainer), Mr Emmanuel Ssemambo of Bank of Uganda who is also a MEFMI Graduate Fellow and Mr Cornilious Deredza, MEFMI Debt Management Programme Officer.

The workshop was delivered through a combination of PowerPoint presentations, follow-up discussions, and “hands-on” training using BoU’s debt database in DMFAS 6.0. In this regard, the validation and training covered the following aspects:

• Key definitions and concepts relating to debt data validation;
• Debt validation processes and relationship to debt audit;
• Data quality assessment aspects;
• Debt validation checklist developed by UNCTAD DMFAS Programme which was reviewed and adapted to Uganda’s debt database management and validation situation to guide documentation of their Debt Validation Procedures Manual;
• Review of BoU’s Loan-by-Loan records/files in relation to validation of their DMFAS 6.0 debt database;
• Review of BoU’s DMFAS 6.0 debt database in respect of recording loans basic details and terms, debt transactions, and debt restructuring.
• Practical demonstration and training on how to add, remove or correct debt information relating to all of the above in DMFAS 6.0; and,
• Review and beefing up of the draft Uganda Debt Validation Checklist for over 150 debt data attributes relating to loans and guaranteed debt.

Under the guidance of the resource persons, a table summarizing the specific database validation issues identified and the corrective measures was developed. These include issues of loan classification, standardisation of the status of some loans as well as adjustment of some loans using DMFAS 6.0.