ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES Effective institutions and systems of public financial How Disaster Resilient is St. management (PFM) play a critical role in the preparation and Vincent and the Grenadines’ response to disasters. Strong PFM ties together often scarce available resources with their appropriate and sustainable use Public Financial Management? to ensure that governments can function reasonably well even in times of disasters. Figure 1: Extent to which disaster resilience and recovery considerations are integrated into key PFM functions and processes. St. Vincent and Regional Average Regional Frontier the Grenadines Full F Advanced A Moderate M Basic B Low L PFM Resource Gender Sensitive Expenditure Information Procurement Public Rules and Planning Resource Tracking Systems and Procedures Investment Regulations Allocation Record Keeping Management Institutional Budget Expenditure Auditing Procurement Procurement Public Asset Arrangements Appropriation Controls Practices Planning Templates and Management for PFM Documents NOTE: The assessment is based on the “Disaster Resilience systems by pinpointing critical PFM policies, practices, foundations; budget appropriation arrangements; financial and Recovery Public Financial Management Review”, and procedures that can be strengthened to improve management controls; procurement arrangements, and developed by the World Bank Group’s Governance Global a government’s capability to respond more efficiently public investment and asset management. Countries Practice, Latin America and Caribbean Team in 2019. It and effectively to disasters, without loss of the integrity assessed in the sample include Antigua and Barbuda, is an analytical instrument that seeks to help countries and accountability. The DRR-PFM review focuses on five Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia, and build resilient, responsive public financial management key elements of the PFM system: legal and institutional St. Vincent and the Grenadines. KEY STRENGTHS LEGAL AND INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT CONTROLS • Procuring entities can forego routine • Well-defined legal framework for prompting • Controls in place to reduce the risk of fraud competitive procurement procedures to timely fiscal response to natural disasters. in post-disaster spending. expedite response to disasters. • A legally established centralized authority • Disaster related expenditures can be tracked for coordinating disaster response activities. and are audited as part of regular expenditures. PUBLIC INVESTMENT AND ASSET • Existence of a comprehensive national • Data management is robust and business MANAGEMENT disaster response plan. continuity and disaster recovery plans are • Most major public investment projects are in place. evaluated on the basis of considerations for BUDGET APPROPRIATION climate adaptation options. • Ex ante access to several disaster risk financing PUBLIC PROCUREMENT • Established mechanisms for fast tracking the instruments to support response to disasters. • Ministries maintain lists of suppliers who are selection, appraisal, and approval of urgent • A variety of warrant modalities for moving able to supply their needs. disaster recovery projects. funds to facilitate quick response to disasters. KEY CHALLENGES OPPORTUNITIES LEGAL AND INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK Absence of simplified instructions on how to quickly administer financing Streamlined instructions to inform budgetary units on the availability for disaster response while adhering to prevailing laws and regulations. and proper use of exceptional measures. Public finance officers are not adequately trained on disaster response Development and delivery of training to improve and reinforce the management. capability of staff to execute emergency finance procedures. BUDGET APPROPRIATION Inclusiveness and gender-sensitive considerations are absent in the Inclusiveness and gender-sensitive considerations are incorporated in allocation of resources for disaster response. the allocation of resources for disaster response. FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT CONTROLS Disaster-related expenditures are not explicitly tracked and cannot be Enhanced chart of accounts to facilitate tracking of disaster related quickly aggregated. expenditures. Availability of timely and reliable information on disaster-related funding Enhanced fiscal transparency by publishing information on disaster allocations is limited. related expenditures. Auditing of disaster related expenditures is not frequent. Development of a procedures manual for conducting post-disaster audits. PUBLIC PROCUREMENT Weak procurement planning and limited use of data to proactively inform Strengthened contingency purchase planning to allow for the timely and optimize procurement decisions. provision of goods, works, and services. Emergency procurement methods and procedures for determining Creation of emergency procurement manuals to clarify how qualifications and capacity of suppliers need to be strengthened. procurement should be conducted in times of urgency. PUBLIC INVESTMENT AND ASSET MANAGEMENT Climate-informed selection criteria are not systematically applied in pre- Formal mechanisms established and documented for the appraisal, appraisal of public investment projects. selection, and approval of public investments. No policy to govern the management of public assets. Development of a climate change and disaster risk-responsive asset management policy.