INTRODUCTION

Financial Management Service Foundation (FMSF) is a development resource organization involved in the Financial Management, Legal Issues and Governance of Development Organizations in South Asia. FMSF believes that “accountability” of development organizations is of paramount significance and strives for enhancing the same through its various initiatives and activities.

Currently, FMSF is involved in financial monitoring of development projects, capacity building of Non- Government Organizations (NGOs) in the areas of financial management, legal regulations and governance related matters. FMSF conducts various research activities and provides consultancy services regarding legal and financial issues to a number of NGOs. Some of the other areas where FMSF renders its services are;

•  Accompaniment and Mentoring support;
• Financial as well as governance reviews & evaluations

BACKGROUND

The Financial Management Service Foundation (FMSF) is an offshoot of the Financial Management Service (FMS), a unit set up by the Evangelischer Entwicklungsdientst or EED (formerly known as Evangelischer Zentralstelle fuer Entwicklungsdienst or EZE) in the year 1995.FMS was established in India to ensure that partners in India, Bangladesh and Nepal were able to fulfill their obligations to EED and enhance their capacity in financial management reporting systems.

During the year 1986, EED (then known as EZE) & ICCO (Inter Church Organisation for Development Cooperation) initiated a  "Programme for Strengthening Accountability of NGOs in India", with a primary objective to strengthen the financial management and accountability of its supported partner organisations in India.The long-term aim of this "programme" was to improve the accountability and financial management of their supported partner organisations in India.

Subsequently EZE was also faced with the problem of not being able to close the files of various projects even after the project period was over as certain reporting requirements could not be complied with. Following two partner consultations in Chennai during the years 1993 and 1994, EZE decided to establish this service unit in the name of Financial Management Service of EZE. This initiative of EZE in more ways than one synchronized with the overall need of the voluntary sector in South Asia (India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka) to:

• have a facilitating body which can assist the voluntary organizations to improve their accounting and reporting requirements.

• have a resource organization which can help in capacity building, sharing information and involved in research to develop Financial Management and related governance systems specifically for NGOs.

 In the above scenario, FMS / FMSF was established and started functioning since 1st January, 1995 . During the initial years the functions of FMSF were oriented towards fulfillment of the requirements as per the mandate from the two partner consultations.
From an EZE representative office, FMS became Financial Management Service Foundation (FMSF), in the year 2000.

 Financial Management Service Foundation (FMSF) has since been involved in providing support to NGOs in the Indian subcontinent as well as overseas resource agencies in the field of Monitoring, Financial Management, Legal Regulations and Related Governance

VISION

We aspire for a reality in development co-operation where there will be overall and wholistic accountability among all the constituencies

MISSION

“FMSF is a resource organization which seeks to promote accountability in South Asia by

•  Enhancing the capacity of partners and development stakeholders in financial management & Governance.

• Advocating Social Accountability through networking and influencing policies

• Providing financial management services

• Research & Information dissemination