Publication: Case Study 5 - Uganda : Participatory Approaches in Budgeting and Public Expenditure Management
Date
2003-03
ISSN
Published
2003-03
Author(s)
World Bank
Abstract
Budget allocation alone can be a poor
indicator of the quality and quantity of public service
delivered on the frontline in countries with weak
institutions. While shifting of budgetary resources to
priority sectors is a good first step, it is crucial to
ascertain where and how the allocated sum gets spent. The
1996 Uganda-World Bank attempt at tracking public
expenditure in primary education (and health) has revealed a
set of surprising findings, prompting fresh thinking on
issues such as service "capture",
decentralization, cost efficiency, and accountability. The
Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys (PETS), as quantitative
exercises separate from, but complementary to qualitative
surveys on the perception of consumers on service delivery,
have been found to be very influential in highlighting the
use and abuse of public money. In the absence of a strong
institutional infrastructure to manage information flow,
surveys such as the one done in Uganda has been seen to not
only provide a realistic portrayal of the status of demand
and supply of services but also prompt creation of cost
effective mechanisms of public accountability through, for
example, information dissemination on resource allocation
and use.
Citation
“World Bank. 2003. Case Study 5 - Uganda : Participatory Approaches in Budgeting and Public Expenditure Management. Social Development Notes; No. 74. © Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/689c945a-469b-56d7-9da7-f03f10646e52 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”