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

370 Matthew Andrews
about the links between one process area and another (in box 11.2, see the
bullet “Connection between policy and PFM processes”). Box 11.3 presents
potential “linkage characteristics” one could consider in regard to strategic
planning in line ministries. (These characteristics could be used to go
beyond PEFA’s table 11.1 indicator and could be used to guide governments
in developing plans that could, indeed, be integrated into budget and financial
management processes.) 12
PFM Complexity: Role-Player Multiplicity and
Role-Player Interaction
Figure 11.2 shows a degree of process complexity that challenges PEFA’s
framework of how the PFM system works—in terms of both the number of
processes included and the need for serious consideration of connections
between processes. It should be noted that the model in figure 11.2 is itself
simplified in two important respects:
1. It presents each process area in one block, seemingly inferring one role
player in each domain.
2. It emphasizes horizontal aspects of PFM integration only (where each
process area seems to have only one level of complexity).
BOX 11.3 Considering Strong “Linkage Characteristics” of
Strategic Plans
Strategic plans that link to annual budgets have these characteristics:
Strategic plans differentiate clearly between objectives, outputs, and activities
that are already financed through existing budgets and those presented as
new initiatives for new financing.
Strategic plans provide a section reconciling prior plans and budgets and
showing how annual budget allocations did or did not reflect prior plans.
Strategic plans are classified in a manner that allows comparison with
budget documents.
Costing data in strategic plans are compared with expenditure and costing
data emanating from annual budget execution reports.
Strategic plans provide monitoring and reporting (financial and nonfinancial)
information, including a report on prior-year results (derived from financial
and nonfinancial reports).
Source: Author’s representation, accessible at http://ksghome.harvard.edu/~mandrew/.