Kick-Off in Costa Rica

CNS recently joined our valued partner FreeBalance to attend the official launch event for the delivery of the Integrated Financial Administration and Human Resources System under the contract signed between the Ministry of Finance of Costa Rica and the FreeBalance-Computer Network Systems (CNS) Joint Venture. The event was held at the National University of Costa Rica with esteemed members of the Costa Rican Ministry of Finance in attendance, including Minister of Finance His Excellency Nogui Acosta, Deputy Minister of Finance Luis Molina and Hacienda Digital Project Director Cristian Barquero.

Members of the FreeBalance-CNS joint venture delivered a range of presentations covering the upcoming project, our respective company backgrounds and previous use cases of Digital Transformation. Some of the key examples of Digital Transformation given by the CNS team during the presentation was the work done by CNS in digitalising key departments in Bangladesh such as the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority and Bangladesh Railway since 2002.

In Costa Rica the FreeBalance-CNS Joint Venture is providing a unified government technology platform and specialist government advisory and technical implementation services to help the Government of Costa Rica create a new, citizen-centric, digital-by-design approach to transform its planning, budgeting, public expenditure, accounting, human resource management, reporting, and treasury functions. The Integrated Financial Administration and Human Talent System represents substantive improvements in terms of efficiency, timeliness, transparency, accountability, accessibility of information and data analysis, by managing information in a single interoperable system with others internal and external to the Ministry of Finance. Within this, the areas of Treasury expenditures are considered: Treasury, Budget, Public Credit, Accounting, Public Procurement, and the Technical Secretariat of the Budget Authority, as well as those of human potential of the entire public sector.

The contract was awarded to the FreeBalance – Computer Network Systems LTD for an amount of US$ 24.9 million, with an execution period of 150 weeks, which will begin 1 business day after signing, plus a one-year warranty. The FreeBalance – Computer Network System JV, like the other participants, underwent approval and appeal processes before the World Bank and the Comptroller General of the Republic (CGR).