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Public Expenditure Guidelines Drawn Up

30 June 2005

Professor Victor Ayeni, Director of the Commonwealth Secretariat's Governance and Institutional Development Division

A set of guidelines for public expenditure management, drawn up at a workshop held at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London, UK, on 20-21 June 2005, will serve as a reference tool to guide member countries' reform initiatives as well as development agencies in the provision of technical assistance. The guidelines will be submitted to this year's Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meeting for consideration when it convenes in Barbados in September. If ministers approve, these guidelines will be passed to Heads of Government at their November 2005 summit in Malta.
 
The guidelines aim to promote reform programmes in Commonwealth countries. They call for comprehensive preparation of budgets, internal control mechanisms and audit units in respective ministries, departments and agencies; and revamped expenditure verification methods such as public expenditure tracking surveys. The guidelines would help refine procurement systems as well as generally enhancing the capacity of finance ministries and audit institutions. There were recommendations for the strengthening of parliamentary oversight and the engagement of civil society, the private sector and the media in the budgetary process. Workshop participants also proposed that donor development assistance be aligned with national budgets. 

The Public Expenditure Management workshop organised by the Governance and Institutional Development Division (GIDD) of the Secretariat brought together 16 senior finance officials from six Commonwealth countries -- Ghana, Guyana, Malta, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea and Uganda -- as well as experts from the UK Department for International Development, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Bank and academics.

Professor Victor Ayeni, Director of GIDD, said: "Adoption of the guidelines by the Heads of Government will be a major milestone and a turning point in the Commonwealth's development history. It is important to ensure prudent allocation of resources for national development. These guidelines will help to set the right course for the efficient and cost-effective management of public expenditure in a transparent and accountable manner."

The guidelines were based on a South African case study on public expenditure management reform, commissioned by the Secretariat in 2005. South Africa was selected on the basis that it has made considerable progress in its public financial reform system within the Commonwealth. In order to achieve a widely acceptable pan-Commonwealth document, this workshop was hosted to draw on other country experiences and international best practices. The guidelines will direct ongoing public expenditure reforms in member countries, and provide an insight into the Secretariat's technical assistance in public sector reform.

Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General Winston Cox said at the event: "The public expenditure guidelines are a Commonwealth response strategy aimed at instituting fiscal rectitude in the public sector, enhancing capacity and assisting member countries to meet national targets including the Millennium Development Goals."

 

CNIS - the Commonwealth News and Information Service Issue 241, 29 June 2005