Description: Guinea Bissau - The Challenge of Restoring Budgetary Discipline : A Public Expenditure Review

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Guinea Bissau - The Challenge of Restoring Budgetary Discipline : A Public Expenditure Review

This Public Expenditure Review (PER) presents a critical view of Guinea-Bissau's nascent democratic structure, one that does not ensure a clear separation of powers, which results in the need for the judiciary to exercise its lacking independe...

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Main Author:	World Bank
Language:	English en_US
Published:	Washington, DC 2013
Subjects:	ACCOUNTABILITY AGRICULTURAL OUTPUT ALCOHOL BUDGET EXECUTION BUDGET FORMULATION CENTRAL GOVERNMENT CPI DEBT EXECUTION FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION FINANCIAL CONTROL FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES FISCAL FISCAL DISCIPLINE FISCAL POLICY FISCAL STANCE FISCAL SUSTAINABILITY FISHING GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURES GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP GOVERNMENT POLICY GOVERNMENT REVENUES INCOME INFLATION INFLATION RATES INSOLVENCY INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK INSTITUTIONAL REFORMS INSTITUTIONAL WEAKNESSES INTEREST RATES JUDICIARY LICENSES MACROECONOMIC PERFORMANCE MACROECONOMIC STABILITY PRIVATE SECTOR PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION PUBLIC EXPENDITURE PUBLIC EXPENDITURE MANAGEMENT PUBLIC EXPENDITURE REVIEW PUBLIC FINANCE PUBLIC FINANCE MANAGEMENT PUBLIC FINANCES PUBLIC FINANCING PUBLIC INVESTMENT PUBLIC MANAGEMENT PUBLIC RESOURCES PUBLIC SECTOR PUBLIC SERVANTS QUALITY CONTROL REPRESENTATIVES RESOURCE ALLOCATION REVENUE SOURCES SAVINGS SOCIAL PROGRAMS SOCIAL SECTORS STATE BUDGET TAX TAX REVENUES TAX SYSTEM TERMS OF TRADE TRANSPARENCY TREASURY WORKERS PUBLIC EXPENDITURES JUDICIAL ADMINISTRATION BUDGETARY PROCESS PUBLIC RESOURCES MANAGEMENT REFORM POLICY LEGAL & REGULATORY FRAMEWORK INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY CAPACITY CONSTRAINTS INSTITUTIONAL REFORM CAPACITY BUILDING SOCIAL SECTOR INVESTMENT PRIVATE SECTOR PARTICIPATION DONOR FINANCE POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGIES INFORMATION MANAGEMENT LEGISLATIVE ENACTMENT CIVIL SOCIETY
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2004/02/2980466/guinea-bissau-challenge-restoring-budgetary-discipline-public-expenditure-review http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14682

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Summary:	This Public Expenditure Review (PER) presents a critical view of Guinea-Bissau's nascent democratic structure, one that does not ensure a clear separation of powers, which results in the need for the judiciary to exercise its lacking independence. Restoring budgetary discipline requires a series of actions in the area of fiscal policy at the macroeconomic level, as well as measures geared towards better prioritization, and allocation of public resources. At the same time, the government needs to resume efforts initiated before the conflict of 1998/99, and take steps to reform the current public finance management system. The renewed reform agenda should focus on the budget cycle encompassing the legal framework regulating it, the way the budget is formulated, executed, controlled and accounted for, so that it can be possible to improve efficiency, transparency, and accountability in the use of public resources. The main findings include institutional weaknesses and recurrent macroeconomic imbalances; an economy heavily dependent on exports, vulnerable to seasonal supply shocks; thus, to circumvent a situation of growing financial difficulties, and institutional fragility, the public finance management system has become largely informal, with grave, undesired consequences in terms of transparency and accountability. The report focuses on institutional reforms, aimed at improving the government's revenue mobilization capacity, and strengthening budgetary discipline. Recommendations for the social sectors suggest seeking additional sources of public sector financing; strengthening regulation of the private sector in Health; reviewing the structure of the education budget; and, negotiating a more flexible use of donor funding, integrating the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) process with the sectors' planning efforts. To this end, the coverage of the budget should be increased, coordination of information improved, the budget preparation process strengthened, enhancing expenditure control, through greater legislative and civil society involvement in the budget process.