Tag (SQ): Fiscal strategy

The following observations were made regarding public financial management in Zamora:

(i) Over the years, governments have included superfluous projects and programs in the annual budget, which were not intended to be achieved. Consequently, these projects and programs were not delivered to the people.

(ii) In Zamora, the annual budget is presented to the entire parliament and broadcast live on radio and television for all Zamorians to hear and see. Subsequently, the entire budget is published in newspapers and finally gazetted when approved.

(iii) It is becoming difficult to access the financial reports of many covered entities, and these entities also fail to post the financial reports on their websites for public access.

(iv) In recent years, the government has invested significant resources into implementing the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS), resulting in over 90% implementation of the standards across the public sector.

(v) The Audit Service has been denied resources to operate because it is perceived as overly critical of corruption in the public sector.

(vi) Managers of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) were given high salaries and allowances despite making huge losses for the state.

(vii) Resource allocation is mostly done based on intuition and personal preferences rather than a well-formulated policy-based fiscal strategy.

(viii) The adoption and implementation of the Zamora Integrated Financial Management Information System (ZIFMIS) have helped the government improve budget controls.

Required:

Map out each observation (a-h) to PEFA’s pillars of public financial management and discuss how each affects the related pillar.