The Sharjah Finance Department has been awarded the ‘Best in Class Treasury Solution in the Middle East’ award by the Adam Smith Awards 2018 for the outstanding achievement in reducing processing times and savings in operational cost recently.

His Excellency, Waleed Al Sayegh, General Director of Sharjah’s Central Finance Department, received the prestigious award at the Sharjah Central Finance Department on Wednesday from Mr Sean De Silva, the project Manager who received the award in London.

HE Al Sayegh, commented: “We are delighted to receive this international accolade for our state-of-the-art treasury services. Sharjah Finance Department has taken huge steps forward to embrace technology in automating its treasury operations.”

With a vision to gain visibility over their cash position across more than 250 accounts with 16 banks and to enhance their financial controls, while optimising liquidity management and controlling financial risk, the Department’s ultimate objective was to improve its efficiency and to reduce their net cost of borrowing.

HE Al Sayegh added, “We devised a solution using the UAE Direct Debit System in agreement with UAE Central Bank. Therefore, processing times are significantly reduced from days to seconds and Sharjah Finance Department has made significant operational cost savings which have more than offset the implementation costs.”

He concluded, “Around 70 per cent of the transactions are now processed electronically and the department has gained full visibility over its cash and financial transactions. The scalable solution means that it can be rolled out across all of the government entities to further streamline.”

Before adopting the new treasury automation, manual payment and cash management activities from various departments was a challenge for the Department. The new system was made possible through the collaboration with HSBC and Kyriba – Unified Treasury Management System.

Launched in 2008, the Adam Smith Awards programme is universally recognised as the international industry benchmark for achievement. This year’s award received more than 200 nominations from 35 countries throughout Europe, Africa, the Americas and the Middle East.