Publication: Treasury Reference Model
Loading...
Published
2001-05
ISSN
Date
2013-06-17
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
The Treasury Reference Model (TRM) gives guidelines for the design of automated treasury systems for government aiming at a) authorities within government and their advisors who are engaged in planning and implementing such systems; and b) software designers and suppliers from the private sector - or even in-house developers of treasury software. The paper starts in Part I with a discussion of the key features of such systems, including the core functional processes, the various policy options associated with their design and the associated institutional arrangements. An effective treasury system will contribute directly to improving transparency and accountability of government and to meet the requirements set out in the IMF Code of Good Practice on Fiscal Transparency - Declaration on Principles and other standards, such as detailed fiduciary standards being developed by the World Bank. Part II gives detailed flow charts of the functional processes associated with Treasury systems, a diagnostic questionnaire that could be used to assess country specific requirements, a set of sample functional specification software that would be required to implement these systems, and a listing of the main data associated with Treasury systems. TRM also provides a means for implementing improved analytical standards for fiscal reporting. Increasingly governments are moving toward accrual basis reports and the IMF Government Finance Statistics system is being revised accordingly.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Hashim, Ali; Allan, Bill. 2001. Treasury Reference Model. World Bank Technical Paper;No. 505. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13943 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 Treasury Diagnostic Toolkit(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2004)Improvement in the management of public finances in developing countries has been an increasingly important focus of World Bank and IMF assistance to member countries. A key element in such assistance is the development of effective treasury systems. Treasury systems form the backbone for recording and processing all financial transactions related to the budget for any level of government. An integrated treasury system offers several significant benefits in managing public monies more effectively, including, greater financial control, improved monitoring of the governments cash position, and better planning of future requirements, better fiscal reporting, and availability of better data for budget formulation. The establishment of an effective treasury system will also contribute directly to improving the transparency and accountability of government. (b) Costing Model: Information system features obtained as a result of completing the detailed Treasury Systems Questionnaire described in Chapter 1 can be linked in to a simple costing model (described in Chapter 2) to generate first stage estimates of the likely cost of a comprehensive investment program. Chapter 2 sets out a costing for a typical program for illustrative purposes only, although the model has now been used in actual program development in several countries as the base for project development. (c) Application Software Questionnaire: Chapter 3 of this paper is intended to assist Treasury managers in the process of selecting appropriate application software from the wide range of options that are now available in the market. This part of the questionnaire focuses on Treasury specific requirements that are not commonly found in a statement of requirements for commercial accounting systems. It is intended to provide Treasury managers in client countries a benchmark to determine the goodness of fit of the major products on the market with the core Treasury functional processes and requirements.Publication A Handbook on Financial Management Information Systems for Government(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-09-30)Automation of government financial management (GFM) systems is one of the core elements of the reform program since ready availability of timely and accurate information is critical to the management of government finances and public funds; and it may simply not be possible to obtain the information required for economic management in a timely manner without some degree of automation, in view of the large transaction volumes involved and their dispersal across multiple sites around the country. These systems are also referred to as integrated financial management information systems (IFMIS). As described in this handbook, IFMIS consists of a number of modules which support the different functional processes associated with GFM. These include modules for macroeconomic forecasting, budget preparation, budget execution (including cash management, accounting, and fiscal reporting), managing the size of the civil service establishment and its payroll and pensions, debt management, tax administration, and auditing. This handbook tries to fulfill the need and to provide information related to the entire systems life cycle, including the setting of reform priorities, designing systems functionality and architecture, and during systems implementation and ongoing operation and maintenance. In doing so, the author draws on his experience gained while managing, assisting, and advising on the implementation of World Bank financed projects for the implementation of such systems over the last 30 years in countries of the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, the Caribbean, South and East Asia, and Africa. The handbook discusses the policy prerequisites, scope, and functionality of these systems in detail. It describes the steps and issues involved in systems design, procurement, and implementation. This includes project management structures required, the main activities involved in systems implementation, the type of technology architecture that needs to be deployed to implement the systems, and what technology choices need to be made, the main cost drivers and how long can systems implementation be expected to take, and the critical success factors that determine successful outcomes. The handbook also highlights key failure points in the design, implementation, and maintenance of these systems.Publication Sierra Leone(Washington, DC, 2015-02)This agriculture public expenditure review (AgPER) provides key background information and guidance in this endeavor by presenting and analyzing historic data on public spending on agriculture, examining the efficiency of spending, and identifying areas where additional funds can be applied effectively to achieve national agricultural policy and comprehensive Africa agriculture development program (CAADP) objectives. The goals of the AgPER in Sierra Leone are as follows: gain a better understanding of the countrys performance in the context of the 2003 Maputo declaration; draw lessons from the past in terms of budget execution in the agricultural sector and identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and deviations from goals; seek and recommend corrective actions for existing and future programs with a view to improving their impact and making them more efficient and equitable; initiate the implementation of the databases and methodology required for conducting similar reviews regularly and thus contribute to the institutionalization of the process; help the government establish an environment and capabilities for results-based management, with particular emphasis on improving planning, execution, and monitoring and evaluation; and increase visibility for the government and the financial and technical partners over the sectors absorptive capacity so that the decision may be made to allocate more resources to agricultural development. This report consists of five chapters: first chapter introduces the strategic and institutional context; second chapter studies the level of public agricultural expenditure in Sierra Leone; third chapter analyzes the economic and functional composition of public agricultural expenditure (allocative efficiency); fourth chapter assesses the technical efficiency of the processes of preparation, execution, and monitoring and evaluation of agricultural budgets; and fifth chapter contains our findings and recommendations.Publication Public Sector Accounting and Auditing in South Asia : A Comparison to International Standards(World Bank, 2010-05-01)This report aims to support regional collaboration and renewed collective efforts to strengthen financial management and oversight practices in South Asia. It compares the public sector accounting and auditing practices in eight South Asian countries to international standards. It is intended to inform public sector accounting and auditing authorities, primarily Ministries of Finance, accountants general, and auditors general, and support their efforts to provide senior policy makers and the general public in their countries with credible, relevant, and useful financial information about the collection, management, and use of public resources. This report is based on detailed 'gap analysis' assessments that were prepared in recent years in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, providing comparisons of public sector accounting and auditing practices in those countries to international standards. This report is a synthesis of the gap analysis reports.Publication Poverty Reduction Support Credits(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2010-09)Vietnam, a one-party socialist state dominated by the Communist Party of Vietnam, has in recent years moved towards a pragmatic growth-oriented approach to economic policy. Early reform measures in 1986 with the doi moi, or new way, introduced a series of market-oriented reforms in industry and trade, as well as agriculture. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 hastened the pace of reform, as the authorities intensified monetary, banking, and structural reforms and set the stage for substantial trade and investment liberalization, and as Vietnam's arrears with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were settled in 1993. Key lessons that emerge from the Vietnam study include: a) the Poverty Reduction Support Credit (PRSC) process is strengthened through rigorous analytic underpinnings (for example, Vietnam development reports, public expenditure reviews, and other analytical and advisory services) that provide a shared vision of the development agenda and a menu of policy actions linked to the thematic pillars of the poverty reduction strategy; b) even in a context of high government commitment, fostering a connection to an external anchor (such as world trade organization accession) can help maintain momentum in the PRSC process and reform generally; c) PRSCs can function as an effective complement to, and catalyst for, sector operations including the development of sector-wide approaches and sector budget support; and d) with large numbers of international and government participants, it becomes increasingly important for both Government and the Bank that responsibilities for coordinating inputs and consultation and maintaining a policy overview be closely linked, defined, and adequately funded.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Taxes, Spending, and Equity: International Patterns and Lessons for Developing Countries(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-17)Taxes and public spending underpin the basic administration of government and finance the human capital and infrastructure investments needed for economic growth. They can also have a significant and immediate impact on poverty and inequality. The question of how public finance can support longer-term growth objectives while promoting equity has become even more important in recent years, given the high fiscal deficits and debt levels most countries emerged with in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. These included the increasing cost of debt and the need to restart environmentally sustainable growth while helping households address the learning losses and other social scars caused by the pandemic. This paper examines the global evidence on which households pay which taxes and who benefits from what spending, and critically, the net effect on different households across the income distribution. The aim is to identify the patterns and lessons that emerge for designing progressive fiscal policies. A global dataset of 96 countries is assembled, spanning all regions of the world and all national income levels, grounded in the Commitment to Equity (CEQ) approach to fiscal incidence.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 Kyrgyz Republic Country Climate and Development Report(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-03)This Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) on the Kyrgyz Republic aims to support the country’s development goals amid a changing climate. The CCDR considers two policy scenarios up to 2050: the business-as-usual (BAU) and high-growth scenarios. As it quantifies the likely impacts of climate change on the Kyrgyz economy between now and 2050, the report highlights key government actions to best prepare for and adapt to climate impacts (referred to as “with adaptation” measures), with a particular focus on the time horizon up to 2030. The CCDR also outlines a path to net zero emissions by 2050 (referred to as “with mitigation” measures, “decarbonization,” or, simply, “net zero 2050”), highlighting associated development co-benefits.Publication Continental Drying: A Threat to Our Common Future(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-04)Grounded in new evidence from satellite data, “Continental Drying: A Threat to Our Common Future” presents the first global assessment of freshwater reserves over the past two decades. The findings expose an alarming trend of “continental drying,” a persistent long-term decline in freshwater availability across vast landmasses. Not only are droughts and deluges becoming more unpredictable, but the total amount of freshwater available for use has also significantly declined. Continental drying, driven by global warming, worsening droughts, and unsustainable water and land use, is a silent but accelerating crisis—largely unknown to the public—that reshapes the global water narrative. Continental drying raises profound risks. This report reveals new empirical evidence showing how freshwater depletion leads to major job losses, reduced incomes, wildfires, and biodiversity threats. In the long term, the combined effects of drying and warming could push societies toward a tipping point where damage accelerates rapidly and adaptation becomes increasingly difficult. Against the backdrop of continental drying, global water consumption rose by 25 percent between 2000 and 2019, with about a third of this increase occurring in regions already experiencing drying. Compounding the pressure, a substantial share of water use in drying regions remains inefficient. Continental Drying identifies hot spots where rising demand and declining supply converge and explores where and how water savings can be realized. This report recommends a three-pronged approach to address the crisis: managing demand, augmenting water supply, and improving water allocation. Five cross-cutting levers—strengthening institutions, reforming water tariffs and repurposing subsidies, adopting water accounting, leveraging data and technological innovations, and valuing water in trade—are essential for effective implementation and to attract private investment to finance the approach. Beyond water, addressing trade barriers, investing in education and skills development, and improving access to markets and financial services are critical for strengthening job and livelihood resilience amid a continental drying crisis.Publication Direct and Indirect Impacts of Transport Mobility on Access to Jobs: Evidence from South Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-11-12)Access to jobs is essential for economic growth. In Africa, unemployment rates are notably high. This paper reexamines the relationship between transport mobility and labor market outcomes, with a particular focus on the direct and indirect effects of transport connectivity. As predicted by theory, wages are influenced by the level of commuting deterrence. Generally, higher earnings are associated with longer commute times and/or higher commuting costs. Local accessibility is also important, especially for individuals with time constraints. Both direct and indirect impacts are found to be significant in South Africa, where job accessibility has been challenging since the end of apartheid. For the direct impact, the wage elasticity associated with commuting costs is significant. Returns on commute are particularly high for women. Local accessibility to socioeconomic facilities, such as shops and health services, is also found to have a significant impact, consistent with the concept of mobility of care. To enhance employment, therefore, it is crucial to connect people not only to job locations but also to various socioeconomic points of interest, such as markets and hospitals, in an integrated manner. This integration will enable individuals to spend more time working and commuting longer distances.