Budget Transparency Accountability and Service Delivery Parminder Brar Lead Financial Management...

Budget TransparencyAccountability and

Service Delivery

Parminder Brar Lead Financial Management Specialist

World [email protected]

East African Budget Transparency and Accountability Conference

Dar es SalaamMay 23, 2010

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1. Background2. Economic Environment3. Budget Transparency Assessments

A. World BankB. PEFAC. IMFD. OECDE. IBPF. Others

4. Service Delivery5. Key Issues

Overview

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Background

Our message to our clients, whatever their political system, is that you cannot have successful development without good governance and without the participation of your citizens.

We will encourage governments to publish information, enact Freedom of Information Acts, open up their budget and procurement processes, build independent audit functions, and sponsor reform of justice systems.

We will not lend directly to finance budgets in countries that do not publish their budgets or, in exceptional cases, at least commit to publish their budgets within twelve months.

Robert B. ZoellickPresident, The World Bank GroupThe Peterson InstituteApril 6, 2011

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Background

The new Access To Information policy has greatly increased sharing of documentation.

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Open and easy access to the entire World Bank dataset. Foregone revenue of around $ 2 mn. p.a.

Background

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Partnered with Google and Microsoft for expanding access.

Background

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Geo-coding: makes project data more

accessible

Visualize project locations and MDGs at country

level

Information available, but not easy to visualize

Background

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Regions Countries

Sectors Projects

Background

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Economic Environment

Between 1998-2008, average GDP growth was 5% p.a.

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The recovery is underway.

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Poverty reduction is lower than expected.

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Assessment Criteria: World Bank

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Several East African countries have the highest CPIA ratings.

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However their performance in recent years has been mixed.


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Improvement in Public Sector Management, including PFM has been weak.

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Question 13 of CPIA: Budget and Financial Management. It has three criteria. It assesses the extent to which there is:

– (a) a comprehensive and credible budget, linked to policy priorities;

– (b) effective financial management systems to ensure that the budget is implemented as intended in a controlled and predictable way; and

– (c) timely and accurate accounting and fiscal reporting, including timely and audited public accounts and effective arrangements for follow up.


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The methodology for Q.13 is under revision.

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Asset / Inventory

Mgmt

Procurement/Purchasing

Mgmt of Budget

Authorizations

Commitment of Funds

Payments and Receipts

Mgmt

CashManagement

Debt and Aid Management

Fiscal Reports &

Budget Review

Audit and Evaluation

Budget Preparation

Policy Development and

Review

Payroll CalcsHR Mgmt

Assessment Criteria: PEFA

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A. PFM Out-turnsCredibility of the budget Indicators 1- 4Deviations from aggregate budgeted expenditure and revenue as well as expenditure composition. Level of expenditure arrears.

B. Key Cross-cutting issuesComprehensiveness and transparency Indicators 5-10Coverage of budget classification, budget documentation, reporting on extra-budgetary operations, inter-governmental fiscal relations, fiscal risk oversight and public access to information.

C. Budget Cyclei. Policy-based budgeting Indicators 11-12Annual budget preparation process, multi-year perspective in fiscal planning, expenditure policy and budgeting


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C. Budget Cycleii. Predictability & control in budget execution Indicators 13-21Revenue administration, predictability in availability of funds, cash balances, debt & guarantee management, payroll controls, procurement, internal controls and internal auditiii. Accounting, recording and reporting Indicators 22-25Accounts reconciliation, reporting on resources at service outlet level, in-year budget execution reports, financial statementsiv. External scrutiny and audit Indicators 26-28Scope, nature and follow-up on external audit; legislative scrutiny of annual budget law and external audit reports

D. Donor Practices Indicators D1- D3Predictability of direct budget support; donor information for budgeting and reporting; use of national procedures


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Around 200 assessments have been completed.


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Overall PEFA ratings provide a good indicator of PFM performance.


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Overall PEFA ratings provide a good indicator of PFM performance.


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Budget Transparency Ratings are possible to calculate using the PEFA dataset (PI 6/8/10/23/24/25).

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Assessment Criteria: IMF

The IMF has issued a guideline on resource transparency.

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It has also issued a Code of Good Practices on Fiscal Transparency in 2007. This is based on four pillars:

Clarity of roles and responsibilities: Structure and functions of government, responsibilities within government, relations between government and the rest of the economy

Open budget processes: Budget preparation, execution, and monitoring; timetable for legislature; realism of estimates and medium-term framework; fiscal sustainability.

Public availability of information: Specification of the coverage, detail and timing of fiscal information to be provided to the public.

Assurance of integrity: Quality of fiscal data, internal oversight, and external scrutiny.


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There is a manual that accompanies the code.

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Almost 90 Fiscal Transparency ROSC reports have been completed – around a third in developing countries.


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The reports show major weaknesses in fiscal risks, internal audit and other PFM areas.


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The situation in resource rich countries is worse than the overall average.


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The IMF has also specified the SDDS.


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Of the 68 countries that subscribe to the SDDS – there are only two countries from Africa (South Africa and Egypt).

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Assessment Criteria: OECD

The OECD specified Best Practices for Budget Transparency in 2002.

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This covered:

Budget Reports The Budget Pre Budget Reports Monthly Reports Mid year Reports Year end Reports Pre-election Reports Long Term Reports

Specific Disclosures Economic Assumptions Tax expenditures Financial liabilities and financial assets Non financial assets Employee pension obligations Contingent liabilities

Integrity, control and accountability Accounting Policies Systems and Responsibility Audit Public and Parliamentary Scrutiny

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Several OECD countries are below the standard.

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For some the time is particularly challenging given their debt to GDP ratios.

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Assessment Criteria: OECD + CABRI

CABRI has applied the OECD methodology to Africa.

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The budget formulation and approval process is rushed in many countries.

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The information provided in the budget documentation by different countries is variable. In several cases it is grossly inadequate.


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There is also wide variability in the quality and timeliness of budget reporting.


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Off budget spending remains a major challenge across Africa.

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The composite index for fiscal transparency is below:

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Assessment Criteria: IBP

The Open Budget Index assesses performance on the basis of eight criteria. Budget documentation for citizens remains weak.

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The OBI index is widely reported.


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The OBI index is widely reported.


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Countries have made good progress in improving their OBI scores.

Tan

zan

ia

Ug

an

da

Yem

en

Rw

an

da

Lib

eri

aAssessment Criteria: IBP

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Assessment Criteria: EITI

There are 11 countries that are EITI compliant.

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Tanzania has completed its first Reconciliation Report under EITI:

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This report covers payments received from twelve operations.

It assesses that during the period July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009, the government received a total of $99,457,000 from the mining companies, while the mining companies paid a total of $135,504,000.

The total discrepancy between all company payments and all government revenues is $36,000,000.

Some of the reasons for the discrepancy are: poor definition of payment flows, particularly production sharing agreements, payment through third parties, particularly those relating to excise duty on imports and fuel levy, and poor government record keeping.

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Assessment Criteria: Fiduciary

The TI index is widely reported every year.

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The first comprehensive baseline survey has just been released in Tanzania.

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The key messages from this report are that:

Corruption in Tanzania is a serious governance and developmental challenge

Service delivery is crippled by corruption and institutional inefficiency

Tackling greed and poverty, the root cause of corruption is paramount in the fight against corruption

The business environment is undermined by corruption and excessive bureaucracy

Improvement in public administration is needed

Intensive public awareness campaign is needed

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The results of the three surveys on corruption are the following:

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The issue of funding of elections has also recently been in the news. There are good practices emerging on this across Africa.

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Assessment Criteria: Standards

Moving to international standards is part of the move towards improving budget transparency. (e.g. GFS 2001)

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Moving to international standards is part of the move towards improving budget transparency. (e.g. IPSAS)


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Moving to international standards is part of the move towards improving budget transparency. (e.g. PBB)

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High PEFA ratings do not automatically translate into efficient service delivery. Comment from the SA National Treasury was:

South Africa has been undergoing major PFM reforms since the 1990’s. It now has a world class PFM system. There is a budget surplus, reduced debt, and increased public spending – up by 9% p.a. in real terms.

The 1990s also saw a ‘service-delivery’ disaster for half of the population with a dysfunctional schooling system, poor public health and limited housing.

Public Financial Management system reforms are not an end in themselves and although a necessary condition, they are not a sufficient condition for better service delivery.

Service Delivery

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Service Delivery

Service delivery seems to have worsened while overall PFM scores have improved in SA. IDASA survey in March 2011 showed that one out of 10 individuals was dissatisfied with service delivery compared to four out of ten around five years ago.

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Service delivery remains severely constrained in East Africa. Primary Health Centers without medicines.

Service Delivery

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Health facilities without staff.

Service Delivery

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Vehicles without maintenance budget.

Service Delivery

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Fund flows across multiple levels of government remain constrained.

Service Delivery

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Rather than talk about what we do know, we should worry about what we do not know.

Rather than focus on what we got right, we should worry about what we got wrong. What we missed; when we did not speak loudly enough; where we self censored – citizens voices yes, but also our own.

Robert B. ZoellickPresident, The World Bank GroupThe Peterson InstituteApril 6, 2011

Service Delivery

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The world is a different place.

Service Delivery

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Service Delivery

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Water point mapping has shown that there is a big difference between the theory and the reality.

Service Delivery

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Only 54% of water points are functional in Tanzania.

Service Delivery

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An NGO has set up a SMS based citizens feedback mechanism.

Service Delivery

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The program expects 2.5 million additional people to benefit from this program.

Service Delivery

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Third party monitoring of secondary school releases is underway.

Service Delivery

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School attendance is being tracked in Uganda.

Service Delivery

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DSM water kiosk survey results released– Twaweza visited water kiosks to ask price of water and to collect

telephone numbers of kiosk owners and clients– Follow up during second round through telephone

– Results used by regulator and for Bank supervision

Service Delivery

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Dar es Salaam Mobile Phone Survey Phase 1

– 550 households in baseline survey– Weekly follow up (8-10 questions) using new or existing questions– Respondent remuneration– Call centre (flexible; works with illiterate respondents and low-end

phones; cheap)– Response rate > 70%, requiring ex-post reweighting of the sample– Part of non-response due to intra-household dynamics and could

be reduced further

Phase 2 (May 2011 onwards)– Use survey for CAS and project monitoring (and welfare

monitoring?)– Requires close collaboration between independent monitor and

TTLs to identify relevant indicators

Service Delivery

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Many good practice examples in Kenya that are having an impact.

Service Delivery

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Service Delivery

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Service Delivery


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Service Delivery

There are also several good examples from Nigeria.

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UNECA report on budget transparency states: “In the case of Africa, the best and most suitable lessons on

fiscal transparency are those generated on the continent itself. It has been demonstrated that the wholesale adoption of guidelines on transparency from abroad are generally ineffective.”

Key Issues

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Key Issues

PFM improvements have to be based on the reality on the ground.

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Key Issue 1: EAC Guidelines

There are major reforms underway in PFM laws, budget classification, internal audit, external audit and oversight.

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Key Issue 1: EAC Guidelines

Issuing a EAC guideline on budget transparency needs to be considered.

Countries in the region need to implement minimum standards regarding release of budget books on the web and adequate and timely reporting.

In 2010 WEAMU issued guidelines on the :

- PFM Act directive - Accounting Regulatory Order directive - Budget Classification directive - Chart of Accounts directive - Table of Financial Operations of the State directive

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Key Issue 2: Citizens involvement

There is need to fully support increased citizens involvement in the budget execution and service delivery. There are guides available for supporting citizens monitoring of procurement.

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Key Issue 3: Simplified in year budget reports

Simplified in year budget reports needs to be produced that facilitates oversight by local communities and oversight committees.

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Key Issue 4: EITI

Countries in East Africa need to move to EITI compliant status.

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Key Issue 5: SDDS

There is need to provide data in accordance with SDDS timelines.

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Key Issue 6: Parliamentary Review

Parliamentary Committees need to be strengthened and provided the capacity for undertaking the review function effectively.

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Thank You

Budget Transparency Accountability and Service Delivery Parminder Brar Lead Financial Management...

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