his Public Expenditure and Institutional Review is part of a package of analytical and advisory service products aimed at assisting the government and Tajikistan's other development partners to develop a medium- to long-term strategy for public sector reform to support the government's poverty reduction objectives. Specifically, this review aims to contribute to the developing a reform strategy by examining four cross-cutting areas for public expenditure management system: (1) policy formulation and organization of the government, including public administration and human resource issues; (2) the budget development and management process; (3) intergovernmental issues and local government reforms; and (4) public investment program planning and process. The report makes short- and long-term recommendations, including establishing a formal priority setting structure, appointing a head of the reform management structures with a clear mandate, amending the legal framework, restructuring the President's administration, reforming the civil service, setting budget ceilings, making all public documents and reports available to the public, improving the external audit framework, amending the public finance law, developing methods to evaluate and select public investment and centralized state investment project, replacing a part of credit financing with grant financing, retaining local authority to set rates and retain revenues, and implementing a new formula for financing sub-national administrations.