Person:
Shah, Anwar
Author Name Variants
Fields of Specialization
governance; public sector reform; budgetary accountability;
Degrees
Departments
Global Practice for Governance, The World Bank
Externally Hosted Work
Contact Information
Last updated
January 31, 2023
Publication Search Results
1 - 10 of 28
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Publication
General Purpose Central-provincial-local Transfers (DAU) in Indonesia : From Gap Filling to Ensuring Fair Access to Essential Public Services for All
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-06)Indonesia has come a long way from centralized governance to decentralized local governance, and today Indonesia ranks among the most decentralized developing countries. The Government of Indonesia is revisiting all aspects of local governance to make appropriate legal and institutional adjustments based on lessons leaarned during the past decade. An important area of this re-examination and possible reform is the central financing of subnational expenditures. The system of intergovernmental finance represents one of the most complex systems ever implemented by any government in the world. The system is primarily focused on a gap-filling approach to provincial-local finance in an objective manner to ensure revenue adequacy and local autonomy but without accountability to local residents for service delivery performance. This paper takes a closer look at Dana Alokasi Umum -- the most dominant program of unconditional central transfers to finance provincial-local government expenditures in Indonesia. The paper also presents illustrative simulations of alternative programs and compares these with the existing Dana Alokasi Umum allocations. The paper concludes that super complexity leads to lack of transparency, inequity, and uncertainty in allocation. Simpler alternatives are available that have the potential to address autonomy and equity objectives while also enhancing efficiency and citizen-based accountability. Such alternatives would represent a move away from the complex gap-filling approach to simple output-based transfers to finance operating expenditures. Capital grants would deal with infrastructure deficiencies. And the alternatives would institute fiscal capacity equalization as a residual program with an explicit standard to ensure that all local jurisdictions have adequate means to deliver reasonably comparable levels of public services at reasonably comparable levels of tax burdens across the country. -
Publication
Localization and Corruption : Panacea or Pandora’s Box?
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-01)An extensive literature on the relationship between decentralization (or localization) and corruption has developed in recent years. While some authors argue that there is a positive relationship between decentralization and corruption, others claim that decentralization in fact leads to a reduction in the level of corruption. This important policy question has not yet been laid to rest, since previous empirical work simply uses eclectic regressions and lacks a conceptual framework to discover the root causes of corruption. This paper attempts to fill this void by presenting a framework in identifying the drivers of corruption both conceptually and empirically in order to isolate the role of centralized decision-making on corruption. The following results emerge: 1) For a sample of 30 countries (developing and industrial), corruption is caused by: a lack of service-orientation in the public sector, weak democratic institutions, economic isolation (closed economy), colonial past, internal bureaucratic controls and centralized decision making. 2) Decentralization is found to have a negative impact on corruption, with the effect being stronger in unitary than in federal countries. -
Publication
A Framework for Evaluating Alternate Institutional Arrangements for Fiscal Equalization Transfers
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-12)Fiscal equalization programs are fairly common features of intergovernmental fiscal relations in industrial countries. Some developing countries have also recently introduced these programs and still others are contemplating such programs. Institutional arrangements for fiscal equalization vary across countries with wide variations in the form and membership of the relevant decisionmaking bodies. This paper provides a simple neo-institutional economics framework for assessing alternative institutional arrangements for their impacts on simplicity, transparency, and objectivity of the equalization program, as well as transaction costs for various parties involved. Comparing institutional arrangements across different countries is a daunting task. The success of these arrangements depends on a multitude of factors. The success of governance structures for fiscal matters may depend not only on the incentives regime associated with their inner structures but also their interactions with other formal and informal institutions in the country. This paper presents a simple framework to understand these incentives and interactions and draw implications for their impacts on transactions costs for the society as a whole and achievement of societal objectives. An application of these concepts to the specific case of institutional arrangements for fiscal equalization transfers are carried out and the predictions based on the theory are compared with observed experiences in major federal countries. The paper demonstrates that the simple new institutional framework presented here has a significant power for predicting potential impacts. The paper concludes, both in theory and practice, that the case for independent grants commission to enhance the transparency, equity, and accountability of the intergovernmental finance system is vastly exaggerated. -
Publication
Local Public Financial Management
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007)This volume provides an overview of local government financial accounting and reporting and where better practices in cash management are documented. The use of transparent procurement processes to mitigate corruption is also elaborated on while practical guidance is imparted on how and when to use debt, how to assess debt affordability, what debt to use, how to issue debt, and how to manage debt. The use of internal controls and audits to ensure efficiency and integrity is highlighted in this volume with particular emphasis on the role of external audit in combating corruption. Audit methods to detect corruption are also presented and discussed. The volume represents a collaborative effort of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and the World Bank Institute to support reform of the public expenditure management and financial accountability systems in developing countries, especially in Africa. -
Publication
Budgeting and Budgetary Institutions
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2007)Budgetary institutions have historically played a critical role in a gradual movement toward responsive, responsible, and accountable public governance in industrial countries. This paper includes the following headings: overview; a primer on budgeting and budgetary institutions; the budget and its coverage; capital budgets -- theory and practice; budget methods and practices; a primer on performance budgeting; accrual accounting in the public sector -- lessons for developing countries; activity-based cost management in the public sector; budget preparation and approval; budget execution; automating public financial management in developing countries; what would an ideal public finance management system look like; strengthening public expenditure management Africa -- criteria, priorities, and sequencing; budgeting in post-conflict countries; country case study -- Kenya; and country case study -- South Africa. -
Publication
Local Budgeting
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007)This publication, Local Budgeting, provides a comprehensive guide for local administrators who are involved in designing and implementing budgetary institutions and who wish to improve efficiency and equity in service delivery and to strengthen internal and external accountability. It details principles and practices to improve fiscal management. It reviews techniques available in developing countries for forecasting revenues and expenditures, and it examines institutional arrangements for ensuring transparency and fiscal discipline. In addition, it outlines some strategies to deal with corruption in local revenue administration. With respect to budgeting, the volume discusses the decisions that need to be made in determining budget format and layout, including the scope of the budget, the degree of transparency of the legal requirements underlying the budget, and the extent to which the budget will emphasize inputs, outputs, and outcomes. Local Budgeting also discusses the role of the capital budget. It details how performance budgeting can serve as a tool for results-based accountability to citizens. It helps the non-specialist reader learn how to interpret budget documents to discover what the government is doing and how well it is performing its tasks. It highlights approaches to stakeholder inputs in the budget process. Finally, it explores the role of budget execution in ensuring management flexibility while enhancing democratic accountability. -
Publication
Public Expenditure Analysis
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2005)This book provides tools of analysis for discovering equity in tax burdens as well as in public spending and judging government performance in its role in safeguarding the interests of the poor and those otherwise disadvantaged members of society, such as women, children, and minorities. The book further provides a framework for a rights-based approach to citizen empowerment-in other words, creating an institutional design with appropriate rules, restraints, and incentives to make the public sector responsive and accountable to an average voter. Various chapters in this book provide tools of analysis for addressing the following test questions: public burden test; poverty reduction test; social protection test; gender safeguard test; responsiveness test; and accountability test. -
Publication
Participatory Budgeting
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2007)This book provides an overview of the principles underlying participatory budgeting. It analyzes the merits and demerits of participatory budgeting practices around the world with a view to guiding policy makers and practitioners on improving such practices in the interest of inclusive governance. This publication includes five regional surveys, and seven country case studies can be found on the accompanying CD ROM. The study explains that participatory budgeting has been advanced by budget practitioners and academics as an important tool for inclusive and accountable governance and has been implemented in various forms in many developing countries around the globe. It adds that through participatory budgeting, citizens have the opportunity to gain firsthand knowledge of government operations, influence government policies, and hold government to account. However, participatory processes also run the risk of capture by interest groups. Captured processes may continue to promote elitism in government decision making. This book examines the potential and perils of participatory budgeting, as observed from practices around the globe. It is divided into three parts. Part I presents the nuts and bolts of participatory budgeting. Part II surveys experiences with participatory budgeting in various regions of the world. Part III (Vol. 2) is on the CD ROM accompanying this book, and it examines case studies of practices in seven countries. -
Publication
Participatory Budgeting : Contents of CD Rom
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007)This book provides an overview of the principles underlying participatory budgeting. It analyzes the merits and demerits of participatory budgeting practices around the world with a view to guiding policy makers and practitioners on improving such practices in the interest of inclusive governance. This publication includes five regional surveys, and seven country case studies can be found on the accompanying CD ROM. The study explains that participatory budgeting has been advanced by budget practitioners and academics as an important tool for inclusive and accountable governance and has been implemented in various forms in many developing countries around the globe. It adds that through participatory budgeting, citizens have the opportunity to gain firsthand knowledge of government operations, influence government policies, and hold government to account. However, participatory processes also run the risk of capture by interest groups. Captured processes may continue to promote elitism in government decision making. This book examines the potential and perils of participatory budgeting, as observed from practices around the globe. It is divided into three parts. Part I presents the nuts and bolts of participatory budgeting. Part II surveys experiences with participatory budgeting in various regions of the world. Part III (Vol. 2) is on the CD ROM accompanying this book, and it examines case studies of practices in seven countries. -
Publication
Local Governance in Industrial Countries
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2006)Local government refers to specific institutions or entities created by national constitutions (Brazil, Denmark, France, India, Italy, Japan, Sweden), by state constitutions (Australia, the United States), by ordinary legislation of a higher level of central government (New Zealand, the United Kingdom, most countries), by provincial or state legislation (Canada, Pakistan), or by executive order (China) to deliver a range of specified services to a relatively small geographically delineated area. Local governance is a broader concept and is defined as the formulation and execution of collective action at the local level. Thus, it encompasses the direct and indirect roles of formal institutions of local government and government hierarchies, as well as the roles of informal norms, networks, community organizations, and neighborhood associations in pursuing collective action by defining the framework for citizen-citizen and citizen-state interactions, collective decision making, and delivery of local public services.