Tajikistan : Key Issues in Public Finance Management

Abstract

This policy note is part of the World Bank's Programmatic Public Expenditure Review (PER) work program for FY2012-2014. The PER consists of a series of fiscal policy notes, which aim at providing the Government of Tajikistan with recommendations to strengthen budgetary processes and analysis. This policy note, the fourth in the series, continues the fiscal policy dialogue conducted in the previous notes. It is structured as follows. Section 2 describes the current state of public finance management (PFM) reform in Tajikistan. Sections 3 and 4 examine the amount and nature of public spending. Section 5 explores the objectives the Government aims to accomplish through its spending. Section 6 summarizes the conclusions of the note: 1) since 2009, significant progress has been achieved in strengthening the PFM systems in Tajikistan; 2) the PFM reform agenda remains large and complex and further progress depends upon overall progress in transparency, efficiency, and equitable governance; 3) the reasons for delays in PFM reform in Tajikistan have not generally been technical but have resulted from the challenges of managing the change associated with reform; 4) the Government is urged to refocus its efforts on delivering all targeted core reforms to obtain and share the amounts, nature, and accomplishments of public spending; 5) improvement in donor practices will help achieve these core objectives as well as facilitate planning, align budget spending with strategic goals, and strengthen accountability; 6) as the PFM reform strategy has passed its mid-point by 2014, the efforts need to be focused on completing the establishment of core PFM functions and on creating preconditions for more advanced reforms. This note provides a number of recommendations to the Government to help achieve its stated PFM reform.