Managing Public Finances for a New Nepal : A Public Finance Management Review

The people's movement of April 2006, known as Jana Andolan II, has created a sense that a new Nepal that is peaceful, inclusive, just, and prosperous is at hand. Such open moments are rare in the history of a country, and the opportunity must...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: World Bank
Format: Integrated Fiduciary Assessment
Language:English
en_US
Published: Washington, DC 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2007/07/9543562/nepal-managing-public-finances-new-nepal-public-finance-management-review
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/7745
Description
Summary:The people's movement of April 2006, known as Jana Andolan II, has created a sense that a new Nepal that is peaceful, inclusive, just, and prosperous is at hand. Such open moments are rare in the history of a country, and the opportunity must be seized. However, the road ahead is challenging. Despite remarkable achievements in reducing poverty over the last decade and despite a good growth potential, Nepal faces major investment climate constraints notably weak infrastructure, weak governance, weak trade facilitation, and rigid labor laws. Recent economic growth has stagnated around 1 percent per capita, despite growth in neighboring China and India. Investment has been sluggish despite large liquidity excess, notably from the income remitted by Nepali workers abroad. This Public Finance Management (PFM) review outlines the key objectives of the government's development strategy and explores the potential contribution of sound public finance management to this agenda.This review has been conducted by the government of Nepal (GoN) and the World Bank, working in partnership under the guidance of the government's National Planning Commission (NPC) and Ministry of Finance (MoF). The scope of the review was finalized in December 2005. Workshops were held in March 2006 to outline frameworks for assessing PFM and procurement performance, and working group meetings were subsequently held. Support was provided in early 2006 for the preparation of sectoral business plans and subsequently for the preparation of the budget. Dialogue with the MoF and the NPC underpins the expenditure data and analysis.