Publication:
East Timor Public Administration : Public Expenditure Management and Accountability Note

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (377.2 KB)
207 downloads
English Text (326.87 KB)
337 downloads
Published
2002-04
ISSN
Date
2013-08-22
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.
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue

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) World Bank
    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) World Bank
    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) World Bank
    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) World Bank
    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) World Bank
    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
    Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21) Luna-Bazaldua, Diego; Levin, Victoria; Liberman, Julia; Gala, Priyal Mukesh
    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
    World Development Report 2011
    (World Bank, 2011) World Bank
    The 2011 World development report looks across disciplines and experiences drawn from around the world to offer some ideas and practical recommendations on how to move beyond conflict and fragility and secure development. The key messages are important for all countries-low, middle, and high income-as well as for regional and global institutions: first, institutional legitimacy is the key to stability. When state institutions do not adequately protect citizens, guard against corruption, or provide access to justice; when markets do not provide job opportunities; or when communities have lost social cohesion-the likelihood of violent conflict increases. Second, investing in citizen security, justice, and jobs is essential to reducing violence. But there are major structural gaps in our collective capabilities to support these areas. Third, confronting this challenge effectively means that institutions need to change. International agencies and partners from other countries must adapt procedures so they can respond with agility and speed, a longer-term perspective, and greater staying power. Fourth, need to adopt a layered approach. Some problems can be addressed at the country level, but others need to be addressed at a regional level, such as developing markets that integrate insecure areas and pooling resources for building capacity Fifth, in adopting these approaches, need to be aware that the global landscape is changing. Regional institutions and middle income countries are playing a larger role. This means should pay more attention to south-south and south-north exchanges, and to the recent transition experiences of middle income countries.
  • Publication
    Digital Africa
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13) Begazo, Tania; Dutz, Mark Andrew; Blimpo, Moussa
    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
    World Development Report 2006
    (Washington, DC, 2005) World Bank
    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
    Doing Business 2014 : Understanding Regulations for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises
    (Washington, DC: World Bank Group, 2013-10-28) World Bank; International Finance Corporation
    Eleventh in a series of annual reports comparing business regulation in 185 economies, Doing Business 2014 measures regulations affecting 11 areas of everyday business activity: Starting a business, Dealing with construction permits, Getting electricity, Registering property, Getting credit, Protecting investors, Paying taxes, Trading across borders, Enforcing contracts, Closing a business, Employing workers. The report updates all indicators as of June 1, 2013, ranks economies on their overall “ease of doing business”, and analyzes reforms to business regulation – identifying which economies are strengthening their business environment the most. The Doing Business reports illustrate how reforms in business regulations are being used to analyze economic outcomes for domestic entrepreneurs and for the wider economy. Doing Business is a flagship product by the World Bank and IFC that garners worldwide attention on regulatory barriers to entrepreneurship. More than 60 economies use the Doing Business indicators to shape reform agendas and monitor improvements on the ground. In addition, the Doing Business data has generated over 870 articles in peer-reviewed academic journals since its inception.