Publication: Pakistan : Reforming Punjab's Public Finances and Institutions
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2001-08-21
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2013-08-29
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Similarly to Pakistan's other provinces, and the country as a whole, Punjab Province - a macrocosm of the country, with more than half the population, and economic activity - is facing a crisis of public service delivery, government finances, public institutions, and governance. Hence, the resulting social, and infrastructure "deficits", have contributed to slower economic growth, slower poverty reduction, and poor social indicators in the province. Nevertheless, Punjab has the opportunity to turn around its public sector, for the provincial government seems determined to improve service delivery. This report is intended to provide an input for this process, and, puts forward recommendations for fiscal restructuring, institutional improvements - including civil service reform - and, sectoral reforms to improve service delivery in education, health, agriculture and irrigation, and roads. Fiscal restructuring needs to focus the public sector on essential core roles, to include improved financial management; revamping planning, and budgeting; mobilizing revenue from taxes, and user charges; and, implementing fiscal decentralization. Institutional improvements, and civil reform would include accountability, and strengthening key provincial economic management, regulatory, and sectoral institutions, while reforms in individual sectors should improve service delivery , and development outcomes. The Federal Government should play an important role in supporting, and facilitating provincial reforms, by guiding the devolution process, stabilizing federal revenues, and, working closely with the provinces in the reform process.
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“World Bank. 2001. Pakistan : Reforming Punjab's Public Finances and Institutions. Public expenditure review (PER);. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/15493 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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Publication Islamic Republic of Pakistan : Punjab Public Financial Management and Accountability Assessment(Washington, DC, 2005-05)The Country Financial Accountability Assessment - Pakistan (December 2003) concluded that there were substantial opportunities for consolidating current reforms throughout Pakistan, and for introducing additional reforms to further strengthen public financial accountability, which would require sustained policy level commitment at national, and provincial levels. This provincial Public Financial Management (PFM) and Accountability Assessment follow this theme of continuing reform. The PFM Performance Measurement Framework provides for a four-grade rating mechanism for measuring the attributes of PFM in a government against the benchmarks provided therein. It provides a useful mechanism for charting a path towards demonstrable improved PFM. 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The MTFF for fiscal 2012 anticipates fiscal surpluses in medium term, driven mainly by an improvement in provincial finances due to a favorable Seventh National Finance Commission Award, and thus concludes that the debt outlook is sustainable through fiscal 2021: the debt-to-GSDP ratio gradually declines over the next 10 years, to 1.2 percent, from 4.0 percent; the interest payments-to-revenues ratio decreases to 0.9 percent, from 3.0 percent; while the debt service-to-revenues ratio rises by a modest 0.3 percent to 3.3 percent. The analysis then explores some potential vulnerability to economic and fiscal shocks. Punjab's debt sustainability to be fairly robust to most shocks, except when the individual shocks are combined. However, the probability of combined shock remains very low.
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