Controlling Government Spending

This Volume Examines The Main Factors Contributing To Expenditure Growth And Formulates Alternative Proposals For Improvement And Sustainability In Expenditure Management.

This book, written by A. Premchand, offers a comprehensive review of fiscal policies and their implications for budgeting and expenditure controls. It provides an in-depth discussion of techniques, procedures, and processes of budgeting with illustrative material drawn from the experiences of industrial and developing countries.

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. The paper also examines the influence of different administrative traditions on types of expenditure controls, including the authority and responsibility of various institutional actors. Finally, it discusses typical weaknesses/problems associated with different traditions of expenditure control and suggests specific measures for strengthening the control framework. While providing examples of expenditure control practices from more than 32 countries, the paper points out that more than two-thirds of the 85 low and middle income countries covered by the publicly available Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) assessments have weak systems of expenditure control that are also associated with higher levels of expenditure arrears and a lack of budget credibility. This paper will help public financial management practitioners to evaluate budget execution systems and identify priorities for strengthening expenditure controls. It will also usefully guide technical assistance work related to modernization of government budget execution and expenditure control systems, including the design and implementation of IT-based financial management information systems.

Public expenditure control has become a central element of economic policy in many countries. This report analyses budget practices and some recent innovations from the point of view of senior public servants in the central budget offices of ...

Traditionally, economics training in public finances has focused more on tax than public expenditure issues, and within expenditure, more on policy considerations than the more mundane matters of public expenditure management. For many years, the IMF's Public Expenditure Management Division has answered specific questions raised by fiscal economists on such missions. Based on this experience, these guidelines arose from the need to provide a general overview of the principles and practices observed in three key aspects of public expenditure management: budget preparation, budget execution, and cash planning. For each aspect of public expenditure management, the guidelines identify separately the differing practices in four groups of countries - the francophone systems, the Commonwealth systems, Latin America, and those in the transition economies. Edited by Barry H. Potter and Jack Diamond, this publication is intended for a general fiscal, or a general budget, advisor interested in the macroeconomic dimension of public expenditure management.

From the Scope of This Study: This study is intended as a contribution to the debate now evolving concerning the control of, and accountability for, federal expenditures. It examines the mechanisms involved in an effective political and economically efficient expenditure process. In attempting to provide a better understanding of the existing expenditure process of the federal government, the study concentrates on how the government allocates its financial resources rather than why or on what it spends money. No attempt is made to consider whether a given spending program is effectively meeting the objectives of government.