Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys Research Articles

FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY AND PERFORMANCE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT A CASE OF GATSIBO DISTRICT

Financial accountability has been one of the most prevalent issues for worldwide for a long time. The objectives of this study sought to establish the extent to which financial accountability influencelocal government performance. The specific objectives included to examine the effect of budgetary control system on the performance of Gatsibo District to examine the effect of public expenditure tracking survey on the performance of Gatsibo District and to determine the relationship between adequate internal control system on the performance of Gatsibo District. This study has couple of benefitsto the researcher herself, students and local government stakeholders by anticipating some modalities that could eventually bridge the challenges facing policy implementers in the enhancement of practice of financial accountability. The target population and sample size were 85 Gatsibo District staff. Correlational research designwas used and quantitative approaches to data collection and analysis were employed. Data analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Scientist (SPSS).The Pearson correlation analysis reported that budgetary control system (r=0.666, p=0.000), public expenditure tracking survey (r=0.733, p=0.000) and internal control systems (r=0.748, p=0.000) were all positive and statistically significant relationship with performance of local governments in Rwanda since their p-values were less than 5%. The regression analysis showed budgetary control system (β1=0.219, p=0.001), public expenditure tracking survey (β2=0.166, p=0.003) and internal control systems (β3=0.307, p=0.000) were positive and statistically significant. This is because the p-value was less than 5%.Hence, the researcher recommend that public servants should embrace the financial accountability practices to improve service delivery to the community as well as improve their overall performance.

Achieving a pro-poor local government budget process in Dokolo district, Uganda: The role of civil society organizations

Purpose: This study aimed to analyze the role of civil society organizations in pro-poor local government budget processes, with Dokolo District as a case study. The specific objectives of the study are (i) To examine the extent to which CSOs contribute to local government revenue enhancement; (ii) To examine the extent to which CSOs influence the enactment of pro-poor local government budget allocations/priorities (iii) To examine the extent to which CSOs promote pro-poor implementation of enacted local government budgets; and (iv) To examine the extent to which CSOs prevent leakages to local government budget resources.
 Methods and materials: The study adopted a descriptive and correlational design, employing both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The population of the study included officials of 10 civil society organizations and both technical and political leaders of 6 local governments in Dokolo district. The sample size of the study was 89 respondents determined using Krejcie and Morgan Table (Krejcie and Morgan, 1970). The target respondents included both males and females.
 Findings of the study: The findings of this study suggest that civil society organizations contribute to local government revenue enhancement, building the capacity of local governments in revenue mobilization, providing off-budget and on-budget support to local governments; that civil society organizations promote pro-poor local government budget allocations through forums such as budget conferences and budget dialogues; that civil society organizations influence local governments to implement their budgets in ways that serve the best interests of the poor and/or the underprivileged and/or their priorities; by pressurizing local governments to implement pro-poor priorities that local governments would otherwise not implement and by speeding up or reducing delay in the implementation of pro-poor priorities or projects; and that civil society organizations promote pro-poor local government budgets by preventing leakages to pro-poor local government resources by among others checking shoddy work in pro-poor projects, Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys (PETS) to check loss of funds meant for pro-poor projects.
 Conclusion: Civil society organisations remain in the pro-poor budgeting processes at both the central government level as well as the local government level in Uganda.
 Recommendations: From the findings, it is encouraged that local governments should leverage civil society organizations as an important resource in enhancing their revenue; that local governments should involve civil society organizations in all phases of the budget circle; that local governments should embrace the use of social accountability forums and tools such as barazas, Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys (PETS) and social movements for checking local government budget resource leakages to enhance decentralized service delivery. Based on what remains unknown, this study suggests future research on the role of social accountability in fighting poverty.

The contribution of Civil Society Organizations in pro-poor budgeting processes: A review on Local Governments in Uganda

Purpose: This study aimed to analyse the contribution of CSOs in pro-poor local government budget processes, with Dokolo District as a case study. The study addressed four questions, namely; (i) what is the extent to which CSOs contribute to local government revenue enhancement? (ii) What is the magnitude to which CSOs influence the enactment of pro-poor local government budget allocations/priorities? (iii) to what extent do CSOs promote pro-poor implementation of enacted local government budgets? And (iv) to what extent do CSOs prevent leakages to local government budget resources?
 Methodology: The study adopted a review of secondary literature gotten from journals, documentaries, periodicals, annual reports and statistical analyses
 Findings of the study: The findings suggest that CSOs contribute to local government revenue enhancement, building the capacity of local governments in revenue mobilization, providing off-budget and on-budget support to local governments; that CSOs promote pro-poor local government budget allocations through forums such as budget conferences and budget dialogues; that CSOs influence local governments to implement their budgets in ways that serve the best interests of the poor and/or the underprivileged and/or their priorities; by pressurizing local governments to implement pro-poor priorities that local governments would otherwise not implement and by speeding up or reducing delay in the implementation of pro-poor priorities or projects; and that CSOs promote pro-poor local government budgets by preventing leakages to pro-poor local government resources by among others checking shoddy work in pro-poor projects. 
 Recommendations: From the findings, it is encouraged that local governments should leverage CSOs as an important resource in enhancing their revenue; that local governments should involve CSOs in all phases of the budget circle; that local governments should embrace the use of social accountability forums and tools such as barazas, Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys (PETS) and social movements for checking local government budget resource leakages to enhance decentralized service delivery.
 Unique contribution to policy and/or practice: The results of this study are relevant to practitioners of civil society organisations seeing that the level of corruption in governments as well as the magnitude to which vulnerable sections continue to be marginalised is growing hence the need for the civil society to offer checks and balances in budget processes.

Purchasing reforms and tracking health resources, Kenya.

As low- and middle-income countries undertake health financing reforms to achieve universal health coverage, there is renewed interest in making allocation of pooled funds to health-care providers more strategic. To make purchasing more strategic, countries are testing different provider payment methods. They therefore need comprehensive data on funding flows to health-care providers from different purchasers to inform decision on payment methods. Tracking funding flow is the focus of several health resource tracking tools including the System of Health Accounts and public expenditure tracking surveys. This study explores whether these health resource tracking tools generate the type of information needed to inform strategic purchasing reforms, using Kenya as an example. Our qualitative assessment of three counties in Kenya shows that different public purchasers, that is, county health departments and the national health insurance agency, pay public facilities through a variety of payment methods. Some of these flows are in-kind while others are financial transfers. The nature of flows and financial autonomy of facilities to retain and spend funds varies considerably across counties and levels of care. The government routinely undertakes different health resource tracking activities to inform health policy and planning. However, a good source for comprehensive data on the flow of funds to public facilities is still lacking, because these activities were not originally designed to offer such insights. We therefore argue that the methods could be enhanced to track such information and hence improve strategic purchasing. We also offer suggestions how this enhancement can be achieved.

Public Expenditure Tracking Survey (PETS) and Quantitative Service Delivery Survey (QSDS) Guidebook

Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys (PETS) and Quantitative Service Delivery Surveys (QSDS) have become important tools for analyzing service delivery and public expenditures. The objective of this PETS/QSDS Guidebook is to assist practitioners in using these instruments and explaining to those who are considering undertaking PETS/QSDS why and how to use these tools. The PETS/QSDS Guidebook is intended to help improve the quality and comparability of survey results by providing guidance and recommendations for designing and implementing these micro-level surveys and providing links to related resources and reports/documents, including standardized survey instruments and indicators.

A TRACKING SURVEY OF RESOURCE FLOW FROM UBEC TO PUBLIC PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN IBADAN NORTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF OYO STATE, NIGERIA

The tracking of public spending on education has gradually become a fashionable practice because of the general view that public expenditure may not reach the publicly run schools due to leakages triggered by corruption, mismanagement and weak monitoring mechanisms. This has increased the fear that the expenditure on primary education might not translate into improved learning. Consequently, this research tracked the flow of instructional materials from the Federal Government Agency through the State Government Agency and the Local Government Agency to the primary school level, assessed the efficiency of public spending and determined the location and scale of anomaly by adopting Public Expenditure Tracking Survey (PETS) to address issues of public accountability in the management of the Universal Basic Education funds in Oyo state. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study using the quantitative and qualitative multi-angular data collection strategy which blended primary survey-based data with secondary information from documentary sources. The population of the study consisted of all seventy four (74) primary schools in Ibadan North Local Government area of Oyo State, Nigeria. The results indicated a significant evidence of resource leakage, existence of lobbying, hoarding of textbooks by some schools and lack of information to the stakeholders on funds released and allocation to schools. Based on the findings, the study recommended that necessary information on public allocations be made readily available to all stakeholders and that policy reforms be made to improve and enforce public accountability in the process of basic education delivery especially in Oyo State, Nigeria.

FIGHTING CORRUPTION WITH SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISMS' POTENTIAL TO REDUCE CORRUPTION IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

SUMMARYGiven the poor track record of traditional anti‐corruption initiatives, donors and governments are increasingly looking at how civil society can fight corruption in public administration. Social accountability mechanisms intend to perform this role by holding officials directly accountable through citizen engagement. However, this article argues that social accountability mechanisms are only capable of reducing corruption systemically if they activate horizontal accountability and sustain it through the sanctioning mechanisms of electoral accountability. A comparative case study analysis using the cases of the Ugandan Public Expenditure Tracking Survey and the Bangalore Citizen Report Card is applied to test this hypothesis. The Tanzanian Public Expenditure Tracking Survey and an example of citizen engagement in Mumbai are employed as shadow cases to provide additional evidence for the hypothesis. The results indicate that social accountability mechanisms must be inclusive, broad, with public effect and embedded in other accountability relationships to fight corruption effectively. Electoral accountability is key, and support to social accountability mechanisms should therefore always be well placed within a broader agenda aimed at strengthening democratic governance. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Institutions and Leakage of Public Funds in the Cameroonian Healthcare Delivery Chain

Abstract This study attempts to examine the extent of leakage in the Cameroonian health sector and identify its sources. The analyses in the study are based on the Public Expenditure Tracking Survey data collected in Cameroon in 2004. The findings reveal that 18.8% of the actual budget allocations of decentralized health services in the Ministry of Public Health do not reach them. Health centers, which are the frontline healthcare providers, receive only 26.4% of their actual budgets contained in the recurrent expenditures of the decentralized health services. We investigate the institutional factors that correlate with the leakage rates and identified the factors that affect the likelihood of health centers receiving public funds. The study finds weak compact and voice institutional links in the Cameroonian health accountability system. The need to effectively control and monitor public funds, improve the information flow mechanism and improve the wage/allowance scale is highlighted. Finally, spending rules should be strictly respected and extra-budgetary spending restricted.

Why is Absenteeism Low among Public Health Workers in Lao PDR?

Absenteeism among public health workers is common in developing countries. Absence rates among public health workers are above 25 per cent in the five developing countries that Chaudhury et al. (N. Chaudhury, J. Hammer, M. Kremer, K. Muralidharan, and F.H. Rogers (2006) Missing in action: Teacher and health worker absence in developing countries. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 20, pp. 91–116) examined. However, the present study finds that the corresponding rate in Lao PDR is significantly lower (17%). Using a new dataset from the Lao PDR Public Expenditure Tracking Survey, we find that both extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation affect health centre worker behaviour: the timely payment of wages, a nonrural workplace and proximity of the workplace to hometown are factors that are negatively associated with absenteeism.

Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys: Planning, Implementation and Uses

If social policies are to be effective, they need to be implemented. A key contributing factor to the success or failure of implementation is the way public sector funds are mobilized, allocated, and disbursed. This is widely recognized, as demonstrated by the wide range of studies analyzing public sector financing. Until relatively recently, attention was primarily focused on budgets and allocations while efforts were made to improve information systems and reporting. In the last decade, recognizing the poor quality of expenditure reporting, Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys (PETS) have been used to draw attention to whether funds are actually applied to their intended purposes. This study looks at a number of PETS studies that have been completed in the last decade and reviews the existing literature on these studies. It discusses how PETS have come to be defined, what makes them distinctive, and how they are used. The key purposes are to demonstrate how and why PETS are useful and suggest some ways to increase their usefulness.

Right to Information and Local Governance: An Exploration

This paper attempts to explore issues related to right to information (RTI) and RTI laws, in the context of local governance. The paper focuses on four case studies—namely, India, Indonesia, Uganda, and Nicaragua—to highlight some of the complexities in campaigning for RTI laws and in implementing them. Based on these, a framework is developed as a tool to map alternative approaches to making local governance more effective and accountable. At present, there are two schools of thought: one focusing on supply‐led or state‐led mechanisms such as public expenditure tracking surveys, and the other focusing on a human rights‐based approach with RTI law at its centre. The framework developed here suggests that these alternative approaches need not be considered mutually exclusive approaches but can be seen in terms of Dreze and Sen’s argument of democratic institutions and democratic practice. Thus, activists can choose approaches that best suit a context at a given point in time as intermediate steps in the journey towards developing just and inclusive institutions.

Costos de transacción generados en el proceso presupuestario en el Perú

This article presents some of the results obtained from the analysis performed to the health sector budget. The study focused the analysis in the city of Lima. The methodology not only looks for a discussion of resource allocation in the health sector, it goes further and makes an analysis applying a Public Expenditure Tracking Survey (PETS) methodology. The core objective is to discover institutional bottlenecks which make the health expenditures less effective.The novelty in this type of research is the construction of three main flows, which represent the budget execution process; these flows are related to the transfer process of money, goods and services, and salaries; besides these three flows there is an additional one related to information. The topics of analysis are multiple; this article prioritized aspects such as the management of own collected resources from tariffs, goods management (specifically pharmaceuticals), and finally the management of petty cash and budget transfers received by health facilities.The study concludes that a poor budget management causes costs to the health system, which sometimes are absorbed by the population and sometimes bythe same health staff. The latter is the origin of perverse incentive to the same personnel who even prefer the status quo. The latter allows them to receive part in their salary from tariffs (with bonus), rather than acquiring needed goods for their facility.

Using Micro-Surveys to Measure and Explain Corruption

This paper discusses survey techniques aimed at a better measurement of corruption at the micro-level and argues that with appropriate survey methods and interview techniques, it is possible to collect quantitative micro-level data on corruption. Public expenditure tracking surveys, service provider surveys, and enterprise surveys are highlighted with several applications. These surveys permit measurement of corruption at the level of individual agents, such as schools, health clinics, or firms. They also permit the study of mechanisms responsible for corruption, including capture of public funds and bribery.