Topic Guide: Public Financial Management

Public financial management and its emerging architecture: a guide to public financial management literature: for practitioners in developing countries. Simson, R. Sharma, N. Aziz, I., Overseas Development Institute, 2011. http://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/7542.pdf  

This guide provides an easy access to relevant readings related to each stage of the PFM cycle. While its focus is more on PFM than specifically on anti-corruption, it offers a useful overview of the budget cycle architecture and recommends literature that describes what a sound PFM system looks like. It also highlights specific areas where there is disagreement about the best approach, or where implementation practices differ widely between countries. It sheds light on the gap between theory and practice, tackling the challenges low capacity and political and economic realities pose for the ideal PFM system. Links to country examples and case studies are also provided.  

Evaluation of donor support to public financial management reforms in developing countries. de Renzio, P., Andrews, M. & Mills, Z., Overseas Development Institute, 2010. http://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Evaluation-Reports/PFM%20Quant%20analysis.pdf  

This study evaluates the results of donor support to public financial management reforms. To this end, the study analyses quantitative evidence on the quality of PFM systems from a sample of 100 countries, and assesses factors that may have determined cross-country differences and variations in the quality of PFM systems over time. The study has aimed to answer two questions, namely: 1) where and why do PFM reform efforts succeed? 2) where and how does external support for PFM reform efforts contribute most effectively to their success? “PFM reform success” is thereby assessed mainly against the set of criteria used in the public expenditure and financial accountability programme (PEFA).  

Managing government expenditure: a reference book for transition countries. 2001. Richard Allen and Daniel Tommasi (eds.). OECD - SIGMA www1.worldbank.org/publicsector/pe/oecdpemhandbook.pdf  

This book remains a highly relevant, comprehensive introductory textbook to public financial management. It covers all aspects of public expenditure management, from the preparation of the budget to the execution, control and audit stages. It is intended to be a practical, operational guide to help countries that are designing and implementing new laws and procedures relating to public expenditure management, and to improve the transparency of budgetary procedures and information.  

Governance, corruption and public financial management. 1999. Salvatore Schiavo-Campo (ed.). Asian Development Bank http://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/pub/1999/governance-corruption-public-financial-management.pdf  

This book is an assembly of papers presented during a seminar on public financial management and accountability held in Manila in April and June 1999. Although no longer representing state-of-the-art anti-corruption approaches in PFM, it is still a useful supplementary reading to the general PFM literature in highlighting the corruption risks and disadvantages of many PFM systems, like individual discretion, principal-agent problems in PFM institutions, centralisation and monopolisation of information, and insufficient capacities of PFM officers and institutions. The book presents these aspects from a practitioner’s viewpoint.