Publication: Republic of Serbia Municipal Public Finance Review : Options for Efficiency Gains
Loading...
Published
2014-06-05
ISSN
Date
2014-09-09
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Since the global financial crisis, Serbia's public debt has more than doubled. Local Governments (LGs) need to find ways to perform more efficiently, not only to contribute to national fiscal consolidation efforts, but also because they may have fewer resources available in the future. This report represents a continuation of the World Bank effort to explore LGs finances. The first phase of this report focused on options for increases in local revenues; impact of further decentralization; options for reduction of subsidies in selected sectors; and how to control the public debt. The report is organized as follows. Chapter 2 examines LG hiring and pay policies. In addition to offering recommendations on how to achieve efficiency and savings, it sheds light on employment wage policies within LG enterprises. Chapter 3 deepens the analysis of local public utility companies (PUCs), which not only have significant responsibilities for delivering local services, but also often pose a significant pressure on LG budgets. On average, financial support to PUCs accounts for a quarter of local budgets. This chapter looks at the main issues and makes recommendations for efficiency gains. Chapter 4 discusses the most important public financial management issues for LGs, asking where better management and accountability could increase value-for-money and help extract additional benefits from current and capital expenditures. It examines budget preparation, execution, and reporting issues as a basis for recommending policies to increase transparency and accountability as well as more efficient use of resources. Chapter 5 summarizes the main conclusions and policy recommendations of the report.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2014. Republic of Serbia Municipal Public Finance Review : Options for Efficiency Gains. © http://hdl.handle.net/10986/20009 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication India - Himachal Pradesh Public Financial Management Accountability Assessment(World Bank, 2009-06-01)The objective of this indicator-led analysis is to provide an integrated assessment of the Public Financial Management (PFM) system of the Government of Himachal Pradesh (GoHP). The analysis draws on the International Monetary Fund fiscal transparency code and other international standards. The analysis proposes to measure and benchmark PFM performance of the state across a wide range of developments over time. The findings are expected to contribute towards strengthening and implementation of the state's PFM reform strategy and in defining priorities and may serve as a baseline against which progress on PFM performance can be measured over time. The thirty-one indicators for the state's PFM system focus on the basic qualities of a PFM system, linking to existing good international practices. Assessments are classified as A (excellent), B (good), C (opportunities for some improvement), and D (in need of improvement in some areas). The indicators cover: 1) the results of the PFM system in terms of actual expenditures and revenues by comparing them to the original approved budget, as well as the level of and changes in expenditure arrears; 2) transparency and comprehensiveness of the PFM system; 3) the performance of the key systems, processes and institutions in the budget cycle; and 4) the elements of donor practices which impact the performance of the PFM system.Publication Lithuania : Issues in Municipal Finance(Washington, DC, 2002-05-16)Since the establishment of Lithuania's independence, the country achieved substantial progress in transforming its local governments into independent units of Government: structural reforms to prod intergovernmental relations were made in 1994 and 1997, and will continue in 2002. Nevertheless, several issues remain, requiring particular attention from the Government. First, revenue and expenditure assignment between levels of government, and the degree of central regulation over local finance, needs to be reviewed. Local governments face fiscal constraints, for revenues are centrally collected, and distributed at centrally determined rates. And, although local governments have nominal authority over their expenditures, major items (salaries and welfare payments) are subject to Government control, resulting in local governments being faced with running arrears, or borrowing from the Government or private lenders. Although high per capita jurisdictions are required to share revenues with poorer counterparts, it is not clear that distribution mechanisms actually allocate revenues as needed. Upcoming reforms are likely to change this, but a greater change in the revenue distribution criteria, would be by funding delegated functions, but distributing according to sector-specific indicators of need, as well as budgeting financial availability. Second, financing capital investment may be improved by a greater fiscal autonomy to local governments, and mostly, by improving the quality of financial information, with reforms that include the separation of current, and capital accounts, and the adoption of accrual accounting for expenditures.Publication Government of Republic of South Sudan Public Finance Management Assessment : Jonglei State(Washington, DC, 2012-05-31)A public finance management (PFM) law is still not in place, even though a draft was prepared more than three years ago. The purpose is to assess the PFM system performance of Jonglei State in South Sudan. This report feeds into a Country Fiduciary Risk Assessment (CIFA) along with a South Sudan Public Expenditure Financial Accountability (PEFA) assessment country procurement assessment report being prepared by a World Bank team on Republic of the Republic of South Sudan (GRSS's) procurement system, using the OECD-DAC assessment methodology, and with PFM diagnostics study on three other state governments. The CIFA will include an action plan for implementing PFM reforms. This PEFA is focused on the State Government of Jonglei. At the time of this PEFA assessment, South Sudan, then known as Southern Sudan, was a semi-autonomous part of Sudan managed by Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS), as part of the Government of National Unity (GoNU) that included both GoSS and the Government of Sudan ('the north'). Jonglei is the largest state in South Sudan, both by area (estimated at 122,581 square kilometers) and by population (1,358,602 people). Socioeconomic development activities have been guided by the Jonglei State strategic plan 2007 to 2011 (published in June 2007). A key challenge is insecurity, partly because of tribal conflict. Instances of violence are common, even as recent as a clash between the Sudan Peoples' Liberation Army (SPLA) and a militia in February 2011. The state does not have its own law governing PFM. As indicated in the PEFA assessment for GoSS, a PFM bill awaits approval by the State Legislative Assembly (SLA), and this would govern PFM legislation at the state government level. In the absence of a state level procurement law, the GoSS level interim procurement and disposal guidelines govern procurement in Jonglei State.Publication Regulatory Capacity Review of Tanzania(Washington, DC, 2010)Regulatory reform has emerged as an important policy area in developing countries. For reforms to be beneficial, regulatory regimes need to be transparent, coherent, and comprehensive. They must establish appropriate institutional frameworks and liberalized business regulations; enforce competition policy and law; and open external and internal markets to trade and investment. This report analyses the institutional set-up and use of regulatory policy instruments in Tanzania. It is one of five reports prepared on countries in East and Southern Africa (the others are on Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Zambia), and represents an attempt to apply assessment tools and the framework developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in its work on regulatory capacity and performance to developing countries.Publication Financing Rural Development for a Harmonious Society in China : Recent Reforms in Public Finance and Their Prospects(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-08)The Government of China has placed strong emphasis on addressing problems related to agriculture, farmers, and rural society, with the development of a "new socialist countryside" designated as a top priority for the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (2006-2010). The financing of public services in rural areas will be a key determinant of the Plan's success. This report analyzes the performance of the intergovernmental fiscal system - the financing of rural development through counties, townships, and villages - and the impact of recent reforms. The authors show that achieving the government's objectives will require channeling substantial new resources to rural areas. In addition, ensuring the effective transfer of resources and their efficient utilization will require fundamental reforms to a wide range of public institutions, including budget and planning processes, personnel management systems, and the organization of government agencies. The authors argue that a comprehensive reform strategy is needed to address fundamental vertical and horizontal imbalances in the intergovernmental fiscal system The reforms must reach beyond the fiscal system to build improved accountability mechanisms to improve public service delivery at the grassroots level. And, given China's size and diversity, reform efforts must focus on improving incentive structures at the county, township, and village levels.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Common Sense and Economic Aid(World Bank, Washington, DC, 1956-02-18)Eugene R. Black, President of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, spoke about America economic aid to other countries. He described in detail the Bank’s business of economic development. The Bank can help developing countries to make a choice in their own interests. He described a hydroelectric power project in Egypt.Publication Address Presenting the Fourth Annual Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 1949-09-13)Eugene R. Black, President of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, spoke about the plight of the underdeveloped member countries. Bank has greatly enlarged its knowledge of their economic problems and needs, their capacity to absorb and service external loans, and the merits of particular development projects. He discussed the most constructive contributions the Bank can make to the progress of development, especially in the least advanced countries, is to help make available to them the experience of other nations. He closed on a note that the Bank can start on the way towards equilibrium, it may find the effects of returning confidence highly cumulative and the difficulties dispelled more quickly than they dared hope.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication Address before the Twenty-First Session of the Economic and Social Council of United Nations, New York City(World Bank, Washington, DC, 1956-04-18)Eugene R. Black, President of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, discussed the newest development in the Bank's technical assistance work, including the International Finance Corporation. He explained the significant progress made by Bank in the postwar decade, and the continued and intensified efforts to accelerate the pace of development.Publication Address before the Foreign Policy Association, Minneapolis, January 19, 1949(World Bank, Washington, DC, 1949-01-19)John J. McCloy, President of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, spoke about the elusive matter of international economic recovery. He reviewed the policy environment for the European Recovery Program (Marshall Plan), economic integration, and international trade imbalances. Europe’s dollar problem is America’s dollar problem.