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

Strengthening Public Expenditure Management in Africa 419
many international consultants assure themselves of a continuing market for
their expertise mainly by advocating the introduction of inappropriately
complex budgeting methods. The World Bank and other donors have not
always followed their own prescription in this respect. On the contrary,
donors’ interventions have sometimes become part of the problem, rather
than the solution, and have made a bad situation worse—as illustrated by the
experience of Chad (box 12.6). This outcome is especially regrettable for the
World Bank, which, with its credibility and lack of vested interest, has a
unique role to play as debunker of fashionable nonsense.
BOX 12.6 The Price of Disregarding Country Realities in
Budget Reform: The Case of Chad
Beginning in 2000, donors introduced budget reforms in Chad, including a
new chart of accounts, rationalized budget execution controls, improved
financial reporting, and a financial management information system. Except
for the financial management information system, these measures were not
overly ambitious in and of themselves. However, they turned out to be inappropriate
in relation to country realities, particularly the weak human
resources capacity, lack of political buy-in, and widespread corruption.
In 2001, the Chad Treasury Department’s chart of accounts was slightly
improved. However, because of lack of information technology specialists, the
Treasury’s accounting software was not adapted to the new chart of accounts,
and some financial statements previously available are no longer being
produced. Later, in 2003 and 2004, the budget preparation and execution
information system used in Burkina Faso was transplanted into Chad, but
without preliminary studies. As a result, the information system does not fit
all of Chad’s budget management procedures, and data have to be partly
reprocessed manually, raising new doubts about their reliability. (The financial
management information system covers only commitments and payment
orders for the current budget, which may be acceptable in Burkina Faso, but
not in Chad, where many payment transactions are made either from nonbudgetary
accounts or from the accounts of the previous budgets.)
Weak capacity made satisfactory results difficult to get from even basic
changes. For example, the format of the budget was improved in 2000, but
because of many calculation errors and last-minute changes, the budget documents
have not become any more reliable. Similarly, COFOG (Classification of
the Functions of Government) codes have been introduced, but most officials
responsible for budget management do not understand their meaning.
The larger part of Chad’s oil revenue has been earmarked for infrastructure,
agriculture, and the social sectors, and rightly so. Unfortunately, instead of
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