GOVERNMENT is committed to supporting the Zimbabwe Public Expenditure Financial Accountability (PEFA) 2017 assessment process under comprehensive reforms in public financial management (PFM), Finance ministry permanent secretary, Willard Manungo has said. BY FIDELITY MHLANGA
The Public Financial Management Enhancement Project, funded by the Zimbabwe Reconstruction Fund, aims to improve control, transparency and accountability and oversight in the use of public resources.
Manungo said in October, the ministry sent some staff members to be trained by the PEFA secretariat in the PEFA 2016 methodology, which would be used for the PEFA 2017.
“It is the government’s expectation that the findings of this assessment together with the ongoing reforms resulting from the findings of the PEFA 2012 will lead to further reforms in public finance management practices which will further improve aggregate fiscal discipline, strategic allocation of resources and efficiency in service delivery for the benefit of Zimbabwe,” he said in a speech read on his behalf by an official from the ministry.
The PEFA assessment will provide a framework for assessing strengths and weaknesses of the public financial management systems, as part of the ongoing public financial management reforms.
The last PEFA process in 2012 identified a number of areas that required government attention that include credibility of the budget and fiscal discipline, budget transparency and comprehensiveness and policy-based budgeting and service delivery.
It also noted that there was need for predictability and control in budget execution to achieve intended strategic allocations of resources accounting, recording and reporting to achieve fiscal discipline and service delivery.
World Bank financial management specialist Srinivas Gurazada said PEFA tells government what it should focus on each of the 31 indicators, adding that rough first report guidance will be produced on expenditure performance to be presented on November 27.
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“PEFA looks at how efficient you do the budgetary processes, how good do you allocate the resources to various ministries and agencies. PEFA is an international framework which has 31 indicators. This will tell the government what it should focus on each of the 31 indicators,” he said.
“There is a quality assurance process and PEFA secretariat will rate you and make sure the report is the right one and follow the right practices. The first report guidance of the 31 indicators will be presented on November 27 which be further reviewed through the peer review process.”
