Public Sector Governance and Accountability Series: Budgeting and ...

108 A. Premchand
defense) as some countries have done (for example, New Zealand), or should
governments use separate practices that are more appropriate for the public
sector? Increasingly now, the view is moving toward separate practices, and
more efforts are being made, through autonomous accounting boards, to
specify the relevant accounting standards for the purpose.
The main problem with the capital budget has been that it was never
implemented in conformity with the conceptual framework, except in the
first phase of its introduction. The extensive prevalence of equivalents and
distorted variations has changed the debate in recent years. In essence, therefore,
capital budgets—with all the possibilities and the discipline that they
bring to the budgeting process—need a fresh impetus.
Notes
1. Most of the available, limited, literature excludes any discussion of capital budget
implementation. In governments, actions speak louder than intentions, and both the
financial and political markets judge aspirations by the results achieved.
2. This could lead to peculiar applications. Despite extremely short life spans, computer
technology products, including software, are treated as capital expenditures.
References and Other Sources
Bland, Robert L., and Wes Clarke. 1999.“Budgeting for Capital Improvements.”In Handbook
of Government Budgeting, ed. Roy T. Mayers, 653–77. San Francisco, CA:
Jossey–Bass.
Goode, Richard. 1983. Government Finance in Developing Countries. Washington, DC:
Brookings Institution.
Goode, Richard, and Eugene A. Birnbaum. 1956. “Government Capital Budgets.” IMF
Staff Papers 5 (1): 23–46.
Mintz, Jack M., and Ross S. Preston. 1993. Capital Budgeting in the Public Sector. Kingston,
Canada: John Deutsch Institute for the Study of Economic Policy.
Premchand,A. 1983. Government Budgeting and Expenditure Controls: Theory and Practice.
Washington, DC: International Monetary Fund.
———. 1995. Effective Government Accounting. Washington, DC: International Monetary
Fund.
———. 2000. Control of Public Money. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
United Kingdom. 1999. Financial Reporting Advisory Board. London: Her Majesty’s
Treasury.