The overarching goal of this CountryFinancial Accountability Assessment (CFAA) i s to assist theGovernment in achieving effective implementation of itsstrategy for strengthened growth and poverty reductionthrough good public financial management. Some of thereport's general conclusions are as follows: The lawsand regulations governing public financial management aregenerally sound, but need to be consolidated and modernized.The Government has gradually improved budget classification,realism and participation of executing entities in itspreparation. Still, there is budget incrementalism and aneffective separation of recurrent and investment budgeting.The Government's integrated financial management systemhas considerably improved public financial management,establishing the concept of increased efficiency throughintegration of budgeting, accounting, treasury, public debtand procurement. Operation of the treasury single accountsystem has contributed significantly to effective cashposition controls, but absence of detailed cash flowprograms and presence of global budget transfers preventsadequate cash management. While the integrated financialmanagement system has allowed for effective central controlson overall spending, the internal control and internal auditcapacity in spending entities needs improvement. Theunderlying financial management systems still do notcontribute to increased efficiency of service delivery.Public investment planning capacity has increased, butdeficient monitoring and evaluation systems help perpetuatethe existence of obsolete and ineffective programs. Althoughbudget execution reports are prepared on time, the lack ofadequate government financial statements andinstitutionalized public sector accounting affects thereview and analysis of public finances. The lack of externalaudit reports on government financial statements is aserious obstacle to transparency in public finances. Theinstitutional foundations to allow for public scrutiny ofpublic expenditure are already in place, but effectiveimplementation requires dealing with significant challengesposed by the lack of traditions of public consultation andof meaningful public access to information, the abstract andcomplicated nature of available information on publicfinances, and the physical difficulty of accessing theinformation. Other conclusions concerned external aidchanneling practices, civil service reform, public debtmanagement, and generally weak revenue administration.
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