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

416 Salvatore Schiavo-Campo
enough to manipulate them—particularly when their hierarchical superiors
are unfamiliar with the new systems.
In sum, the adoption of more advanced ICT should meet the following
criteria:
Always fit the user requirements and the real objectives of the activity.
Ensure that the more advanced ICT goes hand in hand with improved
rules and processes.
Protect data and systems integrity.
Aim at an integrated strategy, and avoid a piecemeal approach (which can
fit specific needs but adds up in time to a ramshackle and even dangerous
system).
If these criteria are met, ICT offers a wonderful potential in Africa for
increasing government accountability, transparency, and participation;
improving the efficiency and effectiveness of public sector operations;
widening access to public services; and disseminating information to the
public and getting feedback from relevant stakeholders and service users.
Do it slowly and do it well—or don’t do it at all
An integrated financial management information system (IFMIS) is a computerized
system covering the entire PEM cycle, from budget preparation
through budget execution, accounting, and reporting. It links line ministries
and spending agencies in a fully integrated way and provides information in
real time. Although an IFMIS must interface with other information systems
on other government activities, it need not encompass all those activities.
(Indeed, to attempt to do so would be an exercise in costly futility, given the
variety of government functions and attendant information requirements.)
Box 12.5 lists the features of a well-designed financial management information
system, as identified by Jack Diamond and Pokar Khemani (2005)
in a recent IMF study on the subject.
The payoff from a well-functioning IFMIS includes greater fiscal transparency
for the executive branch, the legislature, and the citizenry at large;
the associated potential for stronger public financial accountability; the
capability of tracking expenditure at its various stages and in its different categories;
the shrinking of the space for corruption; and, in general, the
provision of financial information that enables better achievement of all
three objectives of expenditure management—expenditure control, linking
of policy with the budget, and operational efficiency. Regrettably, the heavy
costs and requirements of an IFMIS have not been highlighted with the same