types of government expenditure control

International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI), Guidelines for Internal Control in the Public Sector, (http://www.issai.org/media/13329/intosai_gov_9100_e.pdf). The lack of systematic tracking and control of commitments leads to over commitment and arrears in several countries of commonwealth tradition, particularly in Africa. would still require manual intervention. In many cases, a transaction processing system may have to be supplemented by specialized consolidation software to generate the necessary reports in a timely manner. Government expenditures as a share of national output went sharply up and down in these countries, mainly because of changes in defense spending and national incomes. The annual budget authority is regulated by the ministry of finance which releases warrants (notifications de crdit) specifying a commitment ceiling for each month or quarter. These are (i) appropriation control; (ii) commitment control; (iii) aggregate cash control; (iv) control of regularity; (v) accounting control; and (vi) other specific controls. Lusophone African countries are also characterized by a higher degree of centralization in the sense that the overall budget execution responsibility, including the responsibility for financial control, is usually concentrated in one office: either the budget office itself (e.g., in Guine Bissau, and Sao Tome and Principe) or the accounting office (e.g., in Angola and Mozambique). var d=document, g=d.createElement('script'), s=d.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; Economy Minister Mohd Rafizi Ramli said, if the government is . Payment. Types of Control, Their Key Features and Objectives. The expenditure cycle and associated controls in Francophone African countries derive largely from the French system as it existed prior to 1960s in the French provincial governments (prfectures).30 However, many Francophone African countries not only intensified the centralization of controls in the late 1990s,31 but the minister of finance also became the single and principal payment-authorizing officer (Ordonnateur principal unique).32 The responsibility for financial control is typically centralized in the ministry of finance, with its staff out-posted in the line ministries/spending agencies. The Scandinavian countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland) do not have a separate treasury department in the ministry of finance. Defence Services: They account for nearly 20% of the total revenue expenditure of the Central Government in India. The allocation of responsibility to various actors in the exercise of expenditure controls is heavily influenced by their respective administrative traditions of PFM and level of development. Following the approval of the budget/appropriation bill, spending agencies are usually asked to submit a proposed plan for apportionment/allotment. If an FMIS is envisaged, its configuration and rollout should explicitly be linked to planned expenditure control reforms. 5. 31: Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability, Assessing Public Financial Management Performance and Influencing Reform Processes, Experience from Asia and the Pacific, Viet Nam: Improving Public Expenditure Quality Program, Managing Fiscal Risks of Subnational Borrowing, Public Financial Management Systems-Fiji: Key Elements from a Financial Management Perspective, Viet Nam: Improving Public Expenditure Quality Program, Reforming Railway and Metro Asset Management, Public Financial Management Systems - Bangladesh: Key Elements from a Financial Management Perspective, Viet Nam: Improving Public Expenditure Quality Program, Strengthening Fiscal Risk Management of Government Guaranteed Loans, Key Indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2017, Key Indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2018, Public Financial Management Systems-Sri Lanka Key Elements from a Financial Management Perspective, Access to markets for small actors in the roots and tubers sector. Line ministries and agencies are responsible for executing and enforcing the required controls from commitment to payment stages. These stages are: 1. The key players are financial controllers (contrleurs financiers) who are generally under the Budget Department of the ministry of finance and exercise a priori control (in the form of issuance of a visa) at the commitment stage, commitment officers (ordonnateurs) who approve the issuance of payment orders to the Treasury, and public accountants or cashiers (comptables publics) who belong to the public accounting directorate and are responsible for ensuring that the verified bills are paid. Legality of the operation is controlled by verifying that the officials approving a transaction have the authority to do so, and that the required supporting documents have been prepared in line with the law/regulations (for audit). Apportionment and cash management are fully integrated (issuance of warrants/allotments is linked to rolling cash plan/forecast). This paper defines and explains key stages of the government expenditure chain and describes the controls applied at each stage, including their objectives and key features as well as centralized vs. decentralized approaches in application of those controls. Therefore, entering into a commitment or incurring a liability in excess of the limit would not, in the absence of other controls, constitute a breach of law. If an FMIS is planned or under implementation, some measures towards revamping the expenditure control framework will have to be implemented in tandem with the FMIS. When the float of unpaid checks is significant, payments should also be reported on the basis of checks encashed/paid. There is also lack of control over agencies with own revenue outside the treasury system. Once the apportionment of expenditure authorization is made and the spending authority has been released, some countries PFM systems include a stage at which funds are reserved for a specific known expense but for which no contract has yet been issued. There is regular bank reconciliation to ensure integrity of expenditure data. Advances in information technology can help to combine the benefits of the two approaches while minimizing their respective costs and risks. The authority for expenditure is given for a specific pre-defined purpose. Where countries have cash appropriations and accrual based financial statements, this usually gives rise to differences between budget execution reports and financial statements that require reconciliation. They allocate funds among their subordinate units, make commitments, purchase and procure goods and services, verify the goods and services acquired, prepare requests for payment (and make payments, if the payment system is not centralized), prepare progress reports, and may keep accounts and financial records. Authorized purpose of the expenditure. A lack of effective expenditure controls not only threatens macroeconomic stability and fiscal discipline, but can also call into question the integrity of the public financial management system and undermine trust in a governments stewardship of public resources. The issuance of payment orders and checks may be decentralizedwith spending ministries carrying out these tasks and reporting back to the centeror centralized in a treasury department, typically called the accountant general's department within the ministry of finance, which acts both as paymaster and prepares the final accounts of the government. Expenditures. A strict legal interpretation of a cash appropriation would mean that the appropriation is utilized when the government makes a cash payment. var u="https://piwik.pentaho.aidcvt.com/"; In cases where the expenditure involves a previous ongoing contract (e.g., wages, utilities, rent, debt service) or statutory obligation (e.g., transfers to subnational governments, payments of household benefits, etc. A centralized accounting organization (usually called Accountant General) is responsible for making payments and keeping accounting records. These valuations measure the full costs of paying pension benefits. Even when payment processing and expenditure controls are decentralized, a central aggregate control on cash is still required. This convergence is in the direction of: an increased focus on ex ante controls over expenditure commitments rather than ex post controls only at the payment stage of the expenditure cycle; a shift from controlling only cash expenditures towards controlling the accumulation of accrued liabilities as well; greater devolution of responsibility for routine expenditure controls towards ministries and agencies and a more risk-based approach to the exercise of centralized controls; a stronger reliance on internal and external audit to ensure the integrity of financial control systems in ministries and agencies; and. Broadly speaking, it exists not only in the United Kingdom, but also in Australia, New Zealand, Indian sub-continent, and many countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Caribbean that were former British colonies. The reform strategy and action plan should provide for monitoring the progress. In some countries, ministries of finance regard expenditure as having taken place when funds are transferred from the ministry of finance or treasury bank accounts to the line ministries (or first-tier spending units). Verification. Examples of this include lowering taxes and raising government spending. This information is then used for preparing the baseline estimates of the detailed medium-term budget forecast. The accounting department22 of the ministry of finance issues regulations and guidelines on matters related to the preparation of financial accounts by spending agencies, prepares and issues government-wide financial reports, and conducts regular bank reconciliations. Any part of that cost unpaid at the end of the period is a liability. Exceptional procedures eliminated by streamlining the control framework and business processes to address priority needs. Under accrual budgeting systems, there can be differences in both the choice of binding constraint and the fungibility of other constraints. As shown in Figures 13, Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) assessments covering 85 low and middle income countries revealed that: more than two-thirds of these countries have relatively weak systems of expenditure control as indicated by a score of C or D on the PEFA expenditure control indicator PI-20 (Figure 1); weak expenditure controls are associated with higher levels of expenditure arrears as measured by PEFA indicator PI-4 (Figure 2); 2 and. By contrast, British Commonwealth countries do not formally track controls at every stage and typically track only the first and last two stages of the expenditure chain: authorization, payment order, and payment (see also Section IV). Control of procurement: Significant public spending takes place through the public procurement system. Reports from the central bank, based on bank payments data classified by bank code (a compressed form of the budget/accounts classification) provided the only basis for in-year control of budget implementation. This setting aside of an allotment for a future expenditure should not be confused with a legal commitment as no specific contract is signed at this stage. Cash plans in these countries are used as tools for rationing expenditure authority but themselves tend to be unrealistically optimistic, as they do not reflect expected cash outflows based on commitments. An estimate of obligation to pay should be made for non-contractual items and treated as a commitment. 2. Effective expenditure control is the sine qua non of good public financial management (PFM). The various controls applied during the expenditure cycle can be grouped into six main categories. In countries of the British Commonwealth tradition, officials in spending agencies are charged with initiating and authorizing expenditure transactions, from commitment to payment, based on apportionments/allotments/warrants issued by the ministry of finance. Payment order. Spending units may have bank accounts which are a subsidiary of the TSA; such accounts could be zero-balance accounts with commercial banks, with money transferred into them as the payments are approved, and with their balances swept daily into the TSAs top account for cash consolidation. Banks were privatized and deregulated, central bank laws introduced firm limits on the amount of credit available to the government, centralized treasury departments were established to raise financing from the private sector on commercial terms, control and process government payments, and report on budget execution through the main treasury account. Accurate costing of policies and programs, and a comprehensive expenditure authorization framework that captures all expenditure measures. Elementary and secondary education, utilities, public safety, health, roads, street lamps, signs, and traffic lights are the main areas of expenditure of the local governments. Thailand introduced a hurdle approach in the late 1990s to devolve budget execution control, moving this function from the finance ministrys Bureau of the Budget to line agencies. For example, the UK uses the employer cost cap mechanism to control future pension spending. The presence of dual appropriations (either commitment/cash or accrual/cash) can complicate control of budget execution by spending agencies. The classification of public expenditure can be done in 4 ways: Revenue Expenditure The revenue expenditure is funded through the current revenue of the government that includes taxes and non-tax revenues such as welfare schemes or profits, or incidental incomes. The main reforms include enhancing the coverage of the budget, improving the methodology of costing budget policies, introducing medium-term fiscal and budget frameworks, and ensuring timely submission and approval of the budget by the legislature. It seeks to verify: (i) the existence of budget cover or space within the authorized limits; and (ii) that the payment is being made to extinguish the liability to a real creditor and for a claim that was not paid earlier. The budget should be implemented as formulated and authorized with as little deviation as possible, but there should be room to adjust to changing circumstances (e.g., genuinely unexpected events) by modifying the budget as necessary during the year. Thus, the changes will affect the economy. There are two ways of securing such 'economy' in government expenditure: (1) The annual budget of toe central government must lay down the amount to be spent for particular purposes and the government servants or departments should not be permitted to spend in excess of the budgetary allocations. Reservation. To be able to exercise upfront control over the future resource requirements related to pensions, countries implementing accrual budgeting (e.g., the UK, Australia and New Zealand) include the accruing cost and any unfunded liabilities of pension schemes17 within budgetary limits for each government department.18. The key reforms include clarifying responsibilities for verification of delivery of goods and/or services, ensuring documentary proof of delivery, and eliminating any undue delay between verification and issuance of payment orders. See Guidelines for Internal Control in the Public Sector at http://www.issai.org/media/13329/intosai_gov_9100_e.pdf. Allen, R., and others, 2015, The Evolving Functions and Organization of Finance Ministries, Working Paper WP/15/232 (Washington: International Monetary Fund). Often the same type of verification/control is applied at multiple stages of the expenditure cycle, thereby rendering the control redundant and tedious. The first and each subsequent actuarial valuation report includes valuation results for the purposes of measuring changes in the cost of the pension scheme against the employer cost cap, expressed as a percentage of pensionable pay. Verification of goods and services (contrle du service fait): This control involves: (i) verification of the goods and/or services delivered by a supplier to ensure that these conform to the specified quality and quantity; and (ii) a calculation of the liability incurred by the government to the supplier. However, even in such cases and in line with the principles of budget comprehensiveness, transparency, and accountability, such expenditures should be included in the budget documentation, and subjected to the same regularity controls discussed in Section III (see Table 1). Key challenges: large variations in effectiveness of controls; and reconciling accrual-based data at line agencies with cash-based data at the treasury. _paq.push(["setDoNotTrack", true]); Budgeting, internal control and audits are commonly used by government owned hospitals in order to curb expenditures, cost benefits, analysis and management audits that could be applied are not in use. Table 1 below summarizes the types of control applied during various stages of the expenditure cycle, their key features and objectives. It forms aggregate demand in addition to household consumption, business investment, and net exports. _paq.push(['trackPageView']); While particular expenditure control weaknesses may manifest themselves at a particular stage of the expenditure cycle, addressing them may require reforms at various points in the process. Government expenditure is vital in influencing the economy. The allocation of authority and responsibility to various actors for enforcing the controls at each stage of the expenditure cycle varies from one country to another, but some common features can be noted (see Table 2). Mainly commitment, verification, payment order and payment stages, but also at other stages. Controls on liabilities or guarantees (contrle de liquidation): This control is applied on the incurrence of a liability or guarantee and again at the payment stage when the liability is extinguished or guarantee is paid. Commitment. Fiscal policy refers to the use of government spending and tax policies to influence macroeconomic conditions, including aggregate demand, employment, inflation and economic growth. Typical Problems at Different Stages of Expenditure and Tools to Address Them. In the second phase, the focus should be on progressive devolution of controls to spending agencies in parallel with a reinforcement of procedures for auditing and reporting. The budget classification (which may be organized by programs, sub-programs, projects, economic categories, or line items) usually specifies the purpose for which the expenditure can be made.1. No apportionment (or in-year release of spending authority) mechanism. As a result, progress stalled and the reform was not pursued further. PEFA PI-22; and average time lag between delivery and verification. In most cases, researchers assume that control of corruption, rule of law, accountability, and government expenditure tend to have a positive impact on government effectiveness. _paq.push(['enableLinkTracking']); Sweden has a separate debt management agency which also administers the TSA system. The expenditure must occur within the time limits applicable to the expenditure authorization. discusses specific measures for strengthening expenditure controls and addressing weaknesses in countries at different levels of administrative capacity (Section VI). The contralora hence maintains overall control of budget execution. The main reform at this stage is the introduction of a comprehensive commitment control system, including for multi-year commitments and standing commitments (e.g., salaries, utilities, subsidies, transfers, etc.). The link was not copied. For a further discussion on expenditure arrears, see S. Flynn and M. Pessoa (2014). Since commitments usually mature as payments, their control is an essential part of overall expenditure control and prevention of expenditure arrears.11 A commitment does not mean that a payment will necessarily be made within the same fiscal year. Although sequestering may sometimes be necessary, it diminishes the predictability of budgeted/authorized expenditure and undermines the credibility of the budget, and therefore should be used only in exceptional circumstances. Final Local Government Expenditures Quiz Question Does GDP exclude local government expenditure? Similar to Francophone, but with a centralization of authority in one office of the finance ministry (either the budget or accounting office). Spending agencies submit month-wise expenditure plans (along with their budget submission) to serve as the basis for issuance of spending authority (warrant/allotment) after budget approval. Ensures that expenditure commitments by spending units are fully in line with the expenditure limits and the released spending authority. In both centralized and decentralized systems, there should be regular bank reconciliation of transactions27 and reporting of expenditure against authorized allocations by spending agencies. Check float has two dimensions: (i) check float time; and (ii) check float amount. There is scope for disparate application of controls by line agencies, particularly when the control criteria are not well defined. The payment-authorizing officer, called the Ordonnateur, is separate from the financial controller. Commitment-based budgeting systems impose limits on both expenditure commitments and cash payments. This paper will help public financial management practitioners to evaluate budget execution systems and identify priorities for strengthening expenditure controls. Although the governmental budget is primarily concerned with fiscal policy (defining what resources it will raise and what it will spend), the government also has a number of tools that it can use to affect the economy through monetary control. However, several controls such as control of regularity, verification of goods and services, etc. World Bank, 2007, Budgeting and Budgetary Institutions, Public Sector Governance and Accountability Series. PFM Traditions Influencing the Expenditure Control Framework, Tradition in the former Soviet Union countries, V. Identifying Weaknesses in the Expenditure Control Systems, Weaknesses of different expenditure control systems, Diagnosing weaknesses in a particular country, Specific measures to address expenditure control weaknesses, Monitoring reform progress and managing the change, http://www.issai.org/media/13329/intosai_gov_9100_e.pdf, Prevention and Management of Government Arrears, Conceptual Design: A Critical Element of a Successful Government Financial Management Information System Project, Implementing Accrual Accounting in the Public Sector, Unorthodox Expenditure Procedures in CEMAC and WAEMU Countries, Liberia: Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) Assessment, Republic of Mozambique: Technical Assistance Report on Regaining Control Over Budget Execution, 19 A Comparison Between Two Public Expenditure Management Systems in Africa, North Macedonia: Technical Assistance Report - Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability Performance Assessment, Republic of Mozambique: Strategy for Restoring the Expenditure Chain and Improving Financial Programming, Mauritius: Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) Assessment, Niger: Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) Assessment, Public Financial Management Systems - Indonesia: Key Elements from a Financial Management Perspective, Governance Brief No. Legal interpretation of a cash payment types of government expenditure control variations in effectiveness of controls and..., is separate from the financial controller decentralized, a Central aggregate control cash... 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Aggregate demand in addition to household consumption, business investment, and net exports Local government Quiz! Good public financial management ( PFM ) and enforcing the required controls from commitment to payment stages but... That expenditure commitments and cash payments payment stages an FMIS is envisaged, its configuration and rollout should be. This information is then used for preparing the baseline estimates of the must. Expenditures Quiz Question Does GDP exclude Local government expenditure reconciling accrual-based data at line agencies with revenue... The contralora hence maintains overall control of regularity, verification of goods and Services, etc ( 'enableLinkTracking... 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