Afghanistan : Public Financial Management Performance Assessment
Afghanistan's public financial management (PFM) system achieved significant improvements between June 2005 and December 2007. Among 28 performance indicators, 18 indicators improved, two indicators deteriorated, and eight indicators remained u...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Other Financial Sector Study |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Washington, DC
2012
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2008/06/9655873/afghanistan-public-financial-management-performance-assessment http://hdl.handle.net/10986/8062 |
Summary: | Afghanistan's public financial
management (PFM) system achieved significant improvements
between June 2005 and December 2007. Among 28 performance
indicators, 18 indicators improved, two indicators
deteriorated, and eight indicators remained unchanged. Among
three indicators of donor practices, two deteriorated and
one remained unchanged. In relation to other countries for
which Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA)
assessments have been conducted, Afghanistan's ratings
are better than the average for other low-income countries
and in some areas better than the average for middle-income
countries. The operating budget is credible as funding from
domestic revenues and donors has been stable. However, the
gap between the budget and realization remains significant
in the development budget expenditures. The
comprehensiveness of the budget is generally good, although
reporting and especially transparency should be improved.
However, fiscal risk oversight of state-owned enterprises
and municipalities is practically non-existent and thus
problematic. The budget process is based on multi-year
fiscal planning and comparatively detailed budgeting at the
level of ministries and agencies, but so far has lacked the
necessary strategic prioritizations of resources by the
cabinet early in the process. Payroll processing is highly
decentralized which contributes to timely updates of payroll
and reconciliation of personnel and payroll records. Access
to a number of provinces by the external auditor and the
Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) monitoring
agent is hampered by security concerns. External audit of
donor funding is conducted according to acceptable
standards, but the quality of review of the annual budget
statement and of regulatory audits needs to be improved.
Arrangements are in place for the effective internal audit
of treasury and revenue operations of government, but
capacity for internal audit in the line ministries is still
very weak. |
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