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

Budget Execution 301
time limited, and the executive should be required to present a revised
budget to the legislature shortly thereafter.
The number of in-year revisions should be strictly limited (preferably
to only one), and requests from line ministries should be reviewed
together. Some countries present supplementary appropriations to
parliament on a case-by-case basis each time the council of ministers
approves a request from a line ministry, and numerous supplementary
appropriations are thus voted every year. Such procedures should be
avoided. Budget execution is difficult to control when the budget is
continually being revised. Moreover, supplementary appropriations
granted to one sector may all too soon seem better allocated to a higherpriority
sector.
The budget revision should preferably be made within the context of a midyear
review, which will assess budget implementation and identify possible implementation
problems (midyear reviews are further discussed later).
Special Issues
Good fiscal control of personnel expenditures and administration of
procurement are essential for efficient budget implementation.
Fiscal control of personnel expenditures
Issues of personnel management cover different areas. On the one hand,
fiscal stress and the changing role of the government are focusing attention
on procedures for controlling personnel expenditures. This problem is
mainly a policy issue, but it also requires appropriate tools for budgeting
personnel. On the other hand, systems for personnel management should
aim at fostering efficiency in delivering public services. This section focuses
on some key issues in the fiscal control of personnel expenditures.
capping personnel expenditures. The budgets of
many developing countries include ceilings for personnel expenditures. This
approach may be insufficient for personnel expenditure control. Personnel
expenditure ceilings are often more of a floor than a spending limit. In
practice, the system has a certain degree of flexibility but tends toward an
increase in personnel expenditures. It needs to be complemented by a system
that allows the government to monitor and control these legal commitments
(recruitment and any other decisions that affect personnel expenditures).