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

Budget Execution 305
which ones were selected, the reasons for the procurement decision,
details of prices, reports on the acceptance of work done or the receipt
of goods ordered, and comments on the performance of the supplier.
There should be methods of appealing decisions on awards of contracts
or other complaints that arise during the procurement process. Such
complaints can be handled through specific arbitration committees or
through the courts.
Monitoring of Budget Execution
To keep budget execution under control, a comprehensive and timely system
for monitoring budget transactions is required.
Budget execution reports
For domestically financed expenditures, a report should be produced each
month on budget execution at each stage of the expenditure cycle, detailed by
organization, function, program, and economic category, while aggregate
in-month “flash reports” are needed for efficient cash management. At least
every six months, and preferably quarterly, a comprehensive financial budget
execution report,including both expenditures financed from domestic resources
and expenditures financed from external sources, should be published.
The uses of appropriations need to be systematically registered and
tracked. Budget monitoring (or appropriation accounting) should cover
appropriations, apportionment, increases or decreases in appropriations,
commitments and obligations (including special procedures to monitor
forward commitments), expenditures at the verification and delivery stage,
and payments. Such a system is only one element of the government’s
accounting system, but it is the most crucial one for both formulating
policy and supervising budget implementation.
Accounting for expenditure at the different stages of the budget execution
cycle is aimed at meeting the following purposes:
For budget preparation, the forward costs of multiyear investment projects
and the expenditures that are already committed are important.
For fiscal analysis, the cost of outstanding invoices—that is, the difference
between expenditures at the verification stage and payment—must be
assessed.
For program management, information on both commitments and
expenditures at the verification stage is needed. Spending agencies need