The 2003 Guinea Country FinancialAccountability Assessment (CFAA) was implemented jointlywith the 2003 Guinea Public Expenditure Review (PER), andboth analysis will be reported as the Integrated PublicExpenditure Review and Fiduciary Assessment (PER-FA) forGuinea. This approach has been followed in order a) to havea cohesive, and coherent set of analysis, andrecommendations on Public Finance, b) to reduce the demandson the Government of Guinea, which might have resulted froma duplication of reviews being carried out in the same timeframe. This approach reduces the potential overlap in thescope of PER and CFAA. This stand alone CFAA report is basedon the chapter on Public Financial Management systems andprocesses in the PER-FA, with some additional context added.The quality of Public Financial Management in Guinea, doesnot yet provide sufficient assurance for external donors toimplement their projects through the government's ownsystems via, for example, direct budgetary support. In someaspects of public financial management, e.g. the formalcommitment control system, Guinea's simple andpragmatic approach is more effective than some of the moresophisticated, and expensive systems in the sub region.However, the level of public expenditures processed outsidethe central commitment control system, in particular bymeans of payment orders and advances remains a concern.Corruption in public service remains a concern, althoughthere are encouraging signs from the activities of theanti-corruption Commission. Recent changes, in particularhigh-level responsibilities, have eased some perceivedroadblocks to the follow through of anti-corruptionactivities. Nevertheless, Guinea has made substantialprogress in getting up to date in its statutory financialreporting. During the 1990's there had been asignificant lag in the statutory financial reportingobligations (la Loi de reglement). As at March 2003, withthe approval of such law, Guinea was fully up to date withthe legal requirements. In order to improve accountability,there is a need to continue to improve the quality,timeliness and availability of financial information onbudgets, expenditures, and revenues. Measures should include: Establishing a program to report actual vs budgetedexpenditures at the decentralized community level foreducation, health, and rural services, together with arequirement for regular accountability; Implementing apolicy of moving the management of budgeted expenditures tothe closest point at which services can be delivered costeffectively; Simplifying the expenditure control processesat the decentralized level; and, Developing a morepredictable flow of funds to the decentralized level. And,to sustain the decentralization process there is need to:Support the development of fiduciary capacity at thedecentralized level, by providing the necessary personnel,training, and technical guidance; Provide the basicequipment, infrastructure and tools to support decentralizedunits; Progressively establish computer terminals for thecommitment control system closer to the decentralized level.
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