Democratic Republic of Congo : Public Expenditure Review

This public expenditure review (PER) is an important exercise for Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), because the new government is under a tremendous pressure from the population to show that it can provide a better life. The perception and anecdo...

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Main Author: World Bank
Format: Public Expenditure Review
Language:English
Published: Washington, DC 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2008/03/9612673/democratic-republic-congo-public-expenditure-review
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/8117
id okr-10986-8117
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-81172021-04-23T14:02:36Z Democratic Republic of Congo : Public Expenditure Review World Bank CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT DEBT CRISIS DECENTRALIZATION FISCAL DISCIPLINE INVESTMENTS POVERTY REDUCTION PUBLIC EXPENDITURE PUBLIC FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT This public expenditure review (PER) is an important exercise for Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), because the new government is under a tremendous pressure from the population to show that it can provide a better life. The perception and anecdotal evidence that the wealth in DRC is not shared equitably among the population was a leading cause of the recent war on the DRC territory. A lack of action by the government to demonstrate its commitment to move in the right direction can translate into a renewed armed conflict. Without such a demonstration of commitment, international development partners are wary of granting aid to the country, which implies stagnating investment activities, and possible debt crises. The PER strongly advocates to break the cycle of apathy among line ministries of presenting an unrealistic wish-list of a budget proposal, receiving a budget allocation that has little to do with the proposal, enduring an erratic execution of even the diminished allocation, and not reporting back to the financial ministries of how exactly the public funds were used. Their experience of passing decades not receiving meaningful allocations of resources is an understandable reason for such apathy, but it is not an excuse. It is each line ministry's responsibility to present a credible budget based on its sector strategy, and report how the funds were used, so that the intended recipients of public goods and services are served. Development partners can assist where skills were lost during the long neglect. Finally, it is useful to take stock of the progress in the area of public financial management made under the transitional government, and for all the stakeholders to agree on (or at least discuss) the way forward. A functional public financial management system is a fundamental and important asset for any government, and particularly those hoping to attract foreign resources. Indeed, it is recommended that this exercise be undertaken periodically, every two years or so. 2012-06-14T21:41:37Z 2012-06-14T21:41:37Z 2008-03 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2008/03/9612673/democratic-republic-congo-public-expenditure-review http://hdl.handle.net/10986/8117 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank Washington, DC Economic & Sector Work :: Public Expenditure Review Economic & Sector Work Africa Congo, Democratic Republic of
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT
DEBT CRISIS
DECENTRALIZATION
FISCAL DISCIPLINE
INVESTMENTS
POVERTY REDUCTION
PUBLIC EXPENDITURE
PUBLIC FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
spellingShingle CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT
DEBT CRISIS
DECENTRALIZATION
FISCAL DISCIPLINE
INVESTMENTS
POVERTY REDUCTION
PUBLIC EXPENDITURE
PUBLIC FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
World Bank
Democratic Republic of Congo : Public Expenditure Review
geographic_facet Africa
Congo, Democratic Republic of
description This public expenditure review (PER) is an important exercise for Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), because the new government is under a tremendous pressure from the population to show that it can provide a better life. The perception and anecdotal evidence that the wealth in DRC is not shared equitably among the population was a leading cause of the recent war on the DRC territory. A lack of action by the government to demonstrate its commitment to move in the right direction can translate into a renewed armed conflict. Without such a demonstration of commitment, international development partners are wary of granting aid to the country, which implies stagnating investment activities, and possible debt crises. The PER strongly advocates to break the cycle of apathy among line ministries of presenting an unrealistic wish-list of a budget proposal, receiving a budget allocation that has little to do with the proposal, enduring an erratic execution of even the diminished allocation, and not reporting back to the financial ministries of how exactly the public funds were used. Their experience of passing decades not receiving meaningful allocations of resources is an understandable reason for such apathy, but it is not an excuse. It is each line ministry's responsibility to present a credible budget based on its sector strategy, and report how the funds were used, so that the intended recipients of public goods and services are served. Development partners can assist where skills were lost during the long neglect. Finally, it is useful to take stock of the progress in the area of public financial management made under the transitional government, and for all the stakeholders to agree on (or at least discuss) the way forward. A functional public financial management system is a fundamental and important asset for any government, and particularly those hoping to attract foreign resources. Indeed, it is recommended that this exercise be undertaken periodically, every two years or so.
format Economic & Sector Work :: Public Expenditure Review
author World Bank
author_facet World Bank
author_sort World Bank
title Democratic Republic of Congo : Public Expenditure Review
title_short Democratic Republic of Congo : Public Expenditure Review
title_full Democratic Republic of Congo : Public Expenditure Review
title_fullStr Democratic Republic of Congo : Public Expenditure Review
title_full_unstemmed Democratic Republic of Congo : Public Expenditure Review
title_sort democratic republic of congo : public expenditure review
publisher Washington, DC
publishDate 2012
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2008/03/9612673/democratic-republic-congo-public-expenditure-review
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/8117
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