The purpose of this
study is to evaluate Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS)
in Malawi local governments. In 2009, Malawi Government decided to automate public
finance management (PFM) in all 36 sites of local governments.  The government acquired and installed Serenic
Navigator Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). 
Among the main objectives of IFMIS is to ensure effective control and
proper accountability over allocation and utilization of government resources. Eight
years after implementation of IFMIS in Malawi local governments, there are
still critical challenges in PFM. First of all, IFMIS is still used as an
accounting package rather than an ERP. 
There are delays in production of reports from the system and the
reports lack credibility.  The other
challenge is over expenditure on budget items, but Serenic Navigator is one of
ERP with strong internal controls. This study finds out these challenges and
their sources. The first author was involved in the data collection from 15 IFMIS
sites in 2015. The data collection adopted the following methods; desk review
i.e. reviewing documents related to business processes analysis, tender
documents, functional requirements, user acceptance tests, government-vendor
contracts, reports produced from the systems, project charter, and other
documents related to IFMIS. The team also conducted interviews with different
users such as district commissioners, financial controllers, procurement
officers, store/inventory officers, revenue officers, projects officers,
cashiers, and IT officers. Vendors were also interviewed to find out the approaches
used in system design, implementation and maintenance. The team accessed the
system through system administrators to check out audit trail, internal
controls (budget controls), and other configuration such as user matrix, and
chart of accounts, budget planning and management. Findings such as many system
administrators, untrained users, unused modules, important process that are not
automated, lack of systems interfaces, lack of IT policies and sharing of
passwords contribute to the inefficiency of Malawian local governments IFMIS.  This study will add new insights to the field
of e-government research, especially on the challenges caused by approached
adopted in design, implementation and maintenance of IFMIS.