Introducing Financial Management Information Systems In Developing Countries

In the past decade, developing countries (DCs) have been encouraged to reform their public expenditure management systems and have increasingly embarked on major projects to computerize their government operations. Most popular among these have been projects to computerize government accounting and payment operations, by introducing government financial management information systems (FMISs). This paper investigates the reason for almost universal failure to implement and sustain FMISs in DCs. It starts with a review of the "received wisdom" in implementing these projects, and then analyzes problems in its application in the DC context to identify key factors to explain why FMIS projects have been so problematic. Based on the identified negative factors, suggestions for addressing them are offered in the hope of improving success rates.

?Financial Management Information Systems: 25 Years of World Bank Experience on What Works and What Doesn?t? was prepared as an updated and expanded version of the FMIS review report drafted in 2003, to highlight the achievements and challenges observed during the design and implementation of Bank funded FMIS projects since 1984.

This study is the first attempt to explore the effects of Financial Management Information Systems on publishing open budget data and improving budget transparency, and develop some guidelines on relevant aspects. The findings of the study are expected to provide a comprehensive view of the current government practices.

Digital Media and Wireless Communication in Developing Nations: Agriculture, Education, and the Economic Sector explores how digital media and wireless communication, especially mobile phones and social media platforms, offer concrete opportunities for developing countries to transform different sectors of their economies. The volume focuses on the agricultural, economic, and education sectors. The chapter authors, mostly from Africa and India, provide a wealth of information on recent innovations, the opportunities they provide, challenges faced, and the direction of future research in digital media and wireless communication to leverage transformation in developing countries. The volume provides important research on digital media and wireless communication within the context of developing countries that will be very useful for professionals from academia, government agencies, NGOs, technologists, entrepreneurs and investors, and others.

This book provides an assessment of public financial management (PFM) reforms in developing countries using Turkey as a case study. The book elaborates on revenue management, expenditure management, public budget, public financial management information systems, asset and liability management, intergovernmental fiscal relations, accounting, financial reporting, and auditing. Bringing together academics and practitioners, the book analyzes the PFM reforms in the light of theoretical explanations and practices to reveal the achievements, challenges, and future perspectives of PFM.

This open access book focuses on the ‘downstream’ element of PFM, that is how public organisations utilise public resources. It argues that improvements in PFM/IC will only flow from a recognition that what really matters is the quality of management. Management reform is an essential precondition to the successful implementation of many new techniques. Only when a managerial capacity exists willing to take advantage of the opportunities created by such technical developments, is it beneficial to pursue them. The benefits of PFM/IC flow from an improved quality of management. Despite enormous efforts, reform of public financial management and internal control (PFM/IC) in developing and transition economy countries has not been particularly successful in improving the quality of public service delivery and the use of public resources. This book outlines why this is and suggests a new approach. The analysis set out in this book is particularly relevant especially given limited national budgets and squeezed international aid budgets. These management changes include to the political/official relationships, to management structures, to budgetary and accounting arrangements and to the relationships between, particularly, the ministry of finance and other ministries. They require the delegation of operational management, developments in financial management and in accountability arrangements and a reconsideration of personnel policies, penalty and sanction arrangements. Managerial training for the civil service will be a key requirement. Reform may impact upon traditional cultural practices. These changes are all inter-related and should be coordinated.

Public finance is crucial to a country’s economic growth, yet successful reform of public finances has been rare. Ethiopia is an example of a country that undertook comprehensive reform of its core financial systems, independent of the IMF and the World Bank, and successfully transformed itself into one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa. With Ethiopia’s twelve-year reform as its guiding case study, this book presents new analytical frameworks to help governments develop better financial reforms. It shows in detail how four core financial systems—budgeting, accounting, planning, and financial information systems—can be reformed. One of the principal findings presented is that governments must establish basic public financial administration before moving to more sophisticated public financial management. Other key findings include the identification of four strategies of reform (recognize, improve, change, and sustain), the centrality of ongoing learning to the process of reform, and the importance of government ownership of reform. This book will be of interest to researchers and policymakers concerned with public finance, developmental economics, and African studies.

Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Management, Leadership and Governance