Publication: East Timor Public Administration : Public Expenditure Management and Accountability Note
Loading...
Date
2002-04
ISSN
Published
2002-04
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This study focuses on the implications of East Timor's transitions from United Nations administration to Independence, from reconstruction to development and from aid dependence to fiscal independence for public expenditure policy and management. Following an assessment of the existing systems and their constraints, it makes recommendations for improvements in the public expenditure management system as a tool for achieving: 1) Macro-Economic Stability and Growth, by delivering a sustainable and productive application of resources; 2) Poverty Reduction, by allocating resources to programs that benefit and meet the needs of the poor; 3) Value-for-Money in the application of public funds, by focusing on economy, efficiency and effectiveness in public spending; 4) Good Governance, by ensuring transparency in decision-making and expenditure management, and accountability within the public sector, to the legislature and ultimately to the public. 2. The note is intended first as a contribution to the Government's on-going reform strategy. Summary recommendations are presented at the end of this report. The note is also intended as a contribution to independent assessments of the Government's financial management system undertaken by external partners. Six Chapters, including the Introduction, comprise the report: Chapter 2 reviews public expenditure trends over the past two years, covering aggregate expenditure, structural and execution issues, and ending with an assessment of the distribution of the benefits of public spending in three sectors, power, health and education. Chapter 3 examines the institutional framework and process of planning and budgeting in core government, autonomous agencies and the arrangements for oil fund management. Chapter 4 assesses budget execution and control systems, including supporting systems for personnel, supply and procurement, and asset management. Chapter 5 examines the relationship between the core public expenditure management system and external partners, including donors and NGOs, and oversight institutions. Chapter 6 presents a brief overview of the capacity building challenges in the area of public expenditure management and proposes a prioritization of actions to address issues identified in the body of the report.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2002. East Timor Public Administration : Public Expenditure Management and Accountability Note. Public expenditure review (PER);. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/15304 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Zambia - Public Expenditure Management and Financial Accountability Review : Country Financial Accountability Assessment, Annex, Volume 2(Washington, DC, 2003-11)The challenges faced by Zambia in public expenditure management (PEM) have been longstanding, and will require targeted efforts, as well as a strong degree of political will to address. The recently launched constitutional review, which includes issues of public finance, the anti-corruption campaign of the new Government, and the renewed interest by Parliament in governance issues, and accountability have all been encouraging steps. Nevertheless, for Zambia to assure that public accountability is enduring, and not dependent upon the Government of the day, it must take steps to strengthen institutions of the State that can provide public oversight, and that promote basic checks and balances. This report provides a very detailed analysis of the country's PEM, and accountability processes. Yet, many of the recommendations are not new, but have been cited in previous reports of the Bank, and/or other donors. Effective implementation of public sector reforms will likely remain a challenge in Zambia. The limited capacity of Government suggests the need to target a few major aspects of public finance, and to address them persistently: improving compliance with existing regulations; strengthening the oversight institutions of the State; promoting public access to information; and, rebuilding information management, and reporting systems. The report also deals with the second objective of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), i.e., with ways and methods by which the Government can ensure efficient, equitable, and transparent management of public resources. It also focuses on the dimension of governance, i.e., the effectiveness of government to be able to provide public services. The specific objectives of the report are to: (a) provide a comprehensive and integrated assessment of Zambia's overall fiduciary risk, i.e., budget management, financial systems and auditing, and public procurement; (b) document PEM reforms progress to-date, and challenges facing Zambia; and, (c) develop a realistic action plan, outlining short and medium term remedial measures, which the Government should implement with donor support.Publication Albania : Country Financial Accountability Assessment(Washington, DC, 2002-05-14)Despite Albania's significant progress in establishing a legal and institutional base, and its strong commitment to reform - placing the country in a good position to develop a sound fiduciary infrastructure - there are however, several issues that need to be addressed: weak institutional capacity; weak internal controls, including cash management, and internal audit functions; and, absence of solid bases for internal audit in the public sector. In the area of private sector accounting, and auditing, issues need to address: differentiation between the banks, insurance companies, listed and non-listed companies, and other entities, for determining accounting standards; in addition to weak audit capacity, and experience in implementing international standards in auditing. Recommendations include the enactment of the Law on Public Sector Internal Audit; strengthened internal controls, including in the Treasury - specifically, the Treasury cash management function - by establishing daily reconciliation of district treasury payment requests, with the reimbursement by the Bank of Albania to Agent Banks, as well as reconciliation between revenue collections, transferred by the agent banks, with the taxpayer-filled payment forms. Further recommendations include strengthened internal audit capacity, by establishing the methodology for conducting internal public sector audits, and providing training; capacity building to the Ministry of Finance's Accounting Department; strengthened internal audit capacity within the Social Insurance Institute, introducing computerized pension and accounting systems in districts; and, strengthened systems at the Parliamentary Commission on Economic, Finance and Privatization (EFP).Publication Republic of South Sudan : Country Integrated Fiduciary Assessment Southern Sudan, Volume 1. Main Report(Washington, DC, 2012-06)The purpose of this Country Integrated Fiduciary Assessment (CIFA) is: (i) to assess the quality of public finance management and procurement systems in South Sudan; and (ii) to then determine the extent of fiduciary risk posed to domestic and external tax payers by the government's use of their funds through these systems. South Sudan has great potential for further increases in living standards, but achieving them will require large improvements in public services, both in access and in quality. In turn, Public Finance Management (PFM) and procurement systems need to be strengthened in order to improve public services; this will require linking spending more tightly to policy objectives and strengthening the operational efficiency of expenditures. In sum, strengthened PFM and procurement systems are not an end in themselves but, rather, the necessary means to achieving the ultimate objective: improved service delivery in South Sudan. This CIFA will be used by the Government of the Republic of South Sudan (GRSS) and by the country state governments to inform their design or reforms of PFM and procurement systems and, in the case of development partners, to inform their design or revision of technical and financial assistance programs and projects in support of the reforms.Publication Georgia : Country Financial Accountability Assessment(Washington, DC, 2003-09-26)A number of in-depth studies were conducted between the time of the preparation of the first draft CFAA report in May 2002 and the final mission in February 2003. These included a PER, CPAR and an IMF Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC) mission. Each of these missions identified a number of serious weaknesses and made recommendations to address them. Some of these weaknesses had been identified in the CFAA report and others represented new findings. These new findings and their associated recommendations have been reflected in the final CFAA report, sometimes by explicit inclusion, other times by reference. As a result, this final report has a strong emphasis on the internal control framework and fiduciary risks and presents specific short- and medium-term recommendations to mitigate them. In conducting its mission, the team noted that the availability and reliability of financial information beyond routine budget utilization data is severely limited, precluding analysis in a number of areas. Improving the quality of reliable, complete and accurate financial information is essential for sound management decision-making. This report makes four priority and an additional twenty-one recommendations. They are designed to strengthen the legal foundation for internal financial control, construct a modem internal control framework, and develop the human capacity to administer them successfully. Internal controls must be the priority of the Government if it is to reduce its fiduciary risk. The four priority most areas of risk for the Government of Georgia include: implement a sound legal foundation for effective financial controls, build the internal audit function, strengthen the external audit function, and build staff capacities in financial management and auditing.Publication Gambia : Country Financial Accountability Assessment(Washington, DC, 2003-06)In the Gambia, effective public financial management is promoted through a reasonably sound budget framework. However, there are a number of serious weaknesses, which create a high level of fiduciary risk. (Appendix 1 of this report.) Fiduciary risk means here that there is a risk that resources are not accounted for properly, that they are not used for intended purposes and that expenditure does not represent value for money. There are also risks associated with the governance environment. These weaknesses include poor resource allocation, non-compliance, limited execution, inadequate monitoring and scrutiny, insufficient capacity, lack of enforcement, non-transparency, and poor parliamentary oversight. The Government's pledge to strengthen governance needs to be translated into measures to address these weaknesses. This report recommends the following recommendations for providing evidence that significant progress has been made towards the fundamental benchmarks in public financial management: 1) Strengthen linkages between policies and budget expenditures through updating sectoral public expenditure reviews (PERs) for education, health, and agriculture & natural resources, and completing two new PERs in the infrastructure (transportation) and local government sectors. 2) Provide spending departments with indicative resource envelopes beyond the coming month/quarter to facilitate their planning and management. 3) Update the accounting records (including bank reconciliations), immediate address concerns with information technology systems (OMICRON, WANG) and urgently close the annual accounts. 4) Issue audit opinions on financial statements for 1991-1999.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication World Development Report 2006(Washington, DC, 2005)This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.Publication Implementation Know-how Briefs to Support Countries to Prioritize, Connect and Scale for a Digital-in-Health Future(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-08-18)Technology and data are integral to daily life. As health systems face increasing demands to deliver new, more, better, and seamless services affordable to all people, data and technology are essential. With the potential and perils of innovations like artificial intelligence the future of health care is expected to be technology-embedded and data-linked. This shift involves expanding the focus from digitization of health data to integrating digital and health as one: Digital-in-Health. The World Bank’s report, Digital-in-Health: Unlocking the Value for Everyone, calls for a new digital-in-health approach where digital technology and data are infused into every aspect of health systems management and health service delivery for better health outcomes. The report proposes ten recommendations across three priority areas for governments to invest in: prioritize, connect and scale. The Implementation Know-How Briefs serve as practical guides for countries as they implement the ten recommendations. Every Implementation Know-How Brief provides practical information to start planning and implementing how to implement the recommendations. It also contains key terminologies for those not familiar with a particular topic, provides key questions to ask, and a general orientation as to typical issues in these sectors. Topics covered are: 1.) Digital health assessments; 2.) Telemedicine and virtual health care; 3.) Private sector involvement in digital health; 4.) Interoperability in health sector; 5.) Data governance for health data; 6.) Cybersecurity for health sector; 7.) Digital health records; 8.) Determining value of digital technology in health; 9.) Certification and regulatory sandboxes for digital technologies in health; 10.) Workflow mapping for digital technology (re)design in health systems.Publication Lebanon Economic Monitor, Fall 2022(Washington, DC, 2022-11)The economy continues to contract, albeit at a somewhat slower pace. Public finances improved in 2021, but only because spending collapsed faster than revenue generation. Testament to the continued atrophy of Lebanon’s economy, the Lebanese Pound continues to depreciate sharply. The sharp deterioration in the currency continues to drive surging inflation, in triple digits since July 2020, impacting the poor and vulnerable the most. An unprecedented institutional vacuum will likely further delay any agreement on crisis resolution and much needed reforms; this includes prior actions as part of the April 2022 International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff-level agreement (SLA). Divergent views among key stakeholders on how to distribute the financial losses remains the main bottleneck for reaching an agreement on a comprehensive reform agenda. Lebanon needs to urgently adopt a domestic, equitable, and comprehensive solution that is predicated on: (i) addressing upfront the balance sheet impairments, (ii) restoring liquidity, and (iii) adhering to sound global practices of bail-in solutions based on a hierarchy of creditors (starting with banks’ shareholders) that protects small depositors.Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.Publication Argentina Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.