Analysis of public expenditure management in terms of respect for economic, social and cultural rights in the Republic of Moldova

To a great extent, respecting human rights in the Republic of Moldova is affected by unsatisfactory evolution of public expenditures and the way the latter are managed. The quality of public expenditure management, with an impact on respecting economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR) is evaluated through the prism of basic objectives of public financial management, namely the following: maintaining strict financial discipline, allocating public financial resources in conformity with government’s priorities, efficient provision of public services. The central public administration and local public administrations from the Republic of Moldova are relatively more successful in consolidating fiscal discipline than in providing an efficient use of public expenditure in conformity with strategic priorities. The research argues the positive effect which can be made by improvement of public expenditure management on respecting ESCR in the Republic of Moldova.

Treasury Single Account and Fraud Management in Nigeria: Benefits and Challenges

Treasury systems are designed to manage several critical aspects of public expenditure management. Key treasury system functions include financial planning, control of the budgetary process and management of government cash flow. However, for any treasury system to be effective, government has to ensure that it has sufficient liquidity to deal with payments, while ensuring that such liquidity costs are kept within the barest minimum. TSA is a (system of) unified structure of government bank accounts enabling optimal utilization and consolidation of government cash resources. In TSA a bank account or a set of linked bank accounts is used for all government transactions all its receipts and payments and gets a consolidated view of its cash position at any given time. This study investigates Treasury Single Account (TSA) and Fraud Management: Benefits and Challenges in Nigeria. Adopting a survey design, the study made use of primary data collected mainly through administering a set of questionnaire to104employeesofselected three Corporate Affairs Commissions in South-East, Nigeria comprising Enugu, Imo and Abia.100copiesofthequestionnaireoutof the total number of retrieved copies of questionnaire were validly completed and useful for analyses. Findings interlaid revealed that: TSA significantly reduced the incidence of fraud in public enterprises; TSA in public enterprises to a large extent reduces the credit creation of deposit money banks. The study recommends that the TSA policy will be effective if, the Fiscal Sunshine Bill is to be put in place, and if enacted will open up all financial activities of government in a way that there will be no more hiding place for those who divert or loot government money. Just like the Fiscal Sunshine Act is in place with budgeting process, implementation and contract awards, should be open for Nigerians to see how both revenues are generated and how public money is being spent by those in government, and why; Government should overhaul the capacity of the Federal Ministry of Finance and the CBN in order to cope effectively with the challenges associated with enforcement of the provisions of the TSA.

Public Expenditure Management and Political Budget Cycles: The Case of Colima City Council 2009-2018

The political budget cycles (PBC), as an evolutionary part of the economic political cycle (EPC), demonstrate the existence of opportunistic practices of economic variables, electoral, and budgetary that the politicians in power operate in their management to continue in office. In this sense, the literature suggests a pattern of opportunistic behavior on voters’ myopia, showing that there is little retrospective memory for voters, allowing the party in power to execute public policies successfully. Thus, the objective of the research is to analyze the existence of political budgetary cycles in the management of investment spending by the City of Colima from the years 2009 to 2018. Thus, the objective of the research is to analyze the existence of political budgetary cycles in the management of investment spending by the City of Colima from the years 2009 to 2018. This was analyzed using the panel data methodology (MCO; EF; EA), to estimate the variables dependent on investment and current expenditure, a dummy variable was introduced to identify the year before the election and to be able to control the influence of the electoral period on each regression. The results show that investment spending is related to election periods, population growth, and the federal social aid budget sector. Current expenditure was only related to population growth. This allows us to explain that spending is a resource that finances public works in the states of Mexico. Thus, this research shows that public works is a public expenditure that the states of Mexico apply more in times of elections.

Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF): A Panacea for Public Expenditure Management (PEM) In Nigeria?

This paper investigated the outcome of the adoption and implementation of Medium-term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) in the Nigeria budgeting process. MTEF is eulogized by the World Bank, and even donor organization DFR as the panacea to the poor public expenditure management (PEM) prevalent in most of sub – Sahara African Countries. MTEF was first adopted in Nigeria, following the passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 Act 30 to guide her national annual budgeting process. Using simply statistical methods, we collated data from sixteen national budgets (2003 - 2016), and constructed statistical tables to investigate the MTEF in the Nigeria annual budgets. Using correlation coefficient, we examined the behaviour of three key fiscal and expenditure items in Nigeria annual budgets.Our findings showed strong positive correlation between the budgeted and actual figures in all three fiscal items. Oil production was negatively corrected with the actual. We concluded, following our findings that the adoption and implementation of MTEF has to a large degree improved fiscal discipline in the Nigeria budgeting process.

Togo

The economic recovery seems to be taking hold. Inflation stood at 0.6 percent at end-July 2019. The fiscal consolidation was sustained through the first half of 2019; the overall fiscal deficit is estimated at 0.2 percent of GDP at end-June 2019. Reforms are progressing on revenue and customs administration as well as public expenditure management. While the authorities are committed to privatize the two public banks, the tenders for both banks were launched with a delay in September 2019 (prior action). Socio-political tensions have abated but uncertainty remains high, particularly considering the presidential election scheduled for 2020.

Effects of Public Expenditure Management Practices on Service Delivery in the Public Sector: The Case of District Assemblies in Ghana

This research analysed how the public expenditure management as practiced in the District Assemblies of Ghana affect service delivery. The research adopted a mixed-method research approach where qualitative and quantitative data were gathered using questionnaires, interviews, focus group discussions and document analysis. Multistage sampling was used to pick the respondents for the questionnaires, key interview informants and the participants in the focus group discussions. Thirty four out of 170 district assemblies which existed by 2008 were sampled. Participants in the study included 612 District Assembly (DA) officials, 1020 citizens, 28 national/regional officials and 20 participants in focus group discussions. Quantitative data, measured by using scaled-items, were analysed using descriptive statistics and regression while qualitative data were examined thematically. The study established that expenditure management practices had positive significant influence on service delivery. The study recommends that, the DAs should prioritize expenditures to key service delivery areas such as; those that enhance poverty reduction, improve on Human Capital index and strengthen Innovations practices. DAs should strengthen electronic, automation and appropriate technologies for better expenditure management and service delivery. There should be laws to ensure stiffer penalties and enforcement of sanctions on those involved in malpractices in public expenditure management practices, while persistent efforts are made to implement recommendations of Auditor General’s reports on DAs expenditures management practices.

Consistency of Planning and Budgeting of Basic infrastructure in West Java Province

Planning and budgeting play an essential role in achieving development goals in the national and regional scale, especially fundamental development such as infrastructure. Development planning documents through the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) approach presents the relationship between policy priorities and available budgets. The development planning document is implemented annually through the Regional Development Budget (APBD) through a Public Expenditure Management (PEM) approach. Consistency between the two documents is needed to achieve development goals. The purpose of this study is to analyze the consistency between the MTEF and PEM in the Regional Medium Term Development Plan (RPJMD) and the realization of the APBD on basic infrastructure in West Java Province during the period 2016-2017. The research used a method of comparing programs and budgets according to the number, variance, and percentage of changes between MTEF and public budget management and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The results showed that the MTEF and PEM in infrastructure in West Java were not consistent. The difference was caused by the difference in agreement; where MTEF is an agreement between the executive only and PEM is approved by the executive and legislative. Keywords: Consistency, MTEF, PEM, planning and budgeting, infrastructure, AHP.