A Diagnostic Framework to Assess the Capacity of a Government's Financial Management Information System as a Budget Management Tool
A government’s capacity to manage its public finances is central to its ability to deliver services. Well-functioning accounting and financial management systems are among the basics that facilitate this, and significant resources and time have bee...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2016
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/10/26843927/diagnostic-framework-assess-capacity-governments-financial-management-information-system-budget-management-tool http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25267 |
| Summary: | A government’s capacity to manage its
public finances is central to its ability to deliver
services. Well-functioning accounting and financial
management systems are among the basics that facilitate
this, and significant resources and time have been invested
for the procurement and implementation of such systems
across the world. Implementation is, however, often
associated with disappointing results and attribution to
higher-level public financial management (PFM) objectives
difficult to establish. On the basis of five in-depth
project-level evaluations of World Bank investments, this
paper proposes a diagnostic framework that can be used to
assess the utility of a Financial Management Information
System (FMIS) as a budget management tool. The paper
develops a total system strength score and weighs various
dimensions according to importance. The total system
strength score is mapped to corresponding Public Expenditure
and Financial Accountability assessment dimensions to assess
any correlation between the two, and extensive sensitivity
analysis suggests a positive correlation. This is
interpreted as an indication that the framework is robust. A
preliminary application of the methodology to a sample set
of countries finds that in many cases further reforms would
be most effective if, at this stage, they pertained to
expanding treasury single account and FMIS coverage (and its
associated controls) rather than additional technological investments. |
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