This report represents a series of studies on the status of the implementation of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards in the Latin America region.
... See More + The first report of this series, Public Sector Accounting and Financial Information in Latin America, was developed by the World Bank team and issued in April 2015. The general purpose of this second report is to document the status of the management, control, and recording of fixed assets in the countries surveyed, and to propose a comprehensive asset management model to strengthen the region’s public financial management systems in terms of public sector accounting, public investment, transparency, and accountability. The report aims to address the following asset management challenges: (a) accounting methodologies that have been adopted or implemented in the surveyed countries do not necessarily capture all government fixed assets; (b) incomplete or unreliable information on infrastructure assets and projects and other fixed assets, as well as on the provisions related to their upkeep and replacement, creates obstacles to improving public investment policies and enhancing the region’s ability to promote productivity and competitiveness; (c) greater control of fixed assets is directly related to the improvement of transparency and accountability indexes; and (d) governments’ inability to obtain an objective picture of their financial position and performance limits the quality of analysis on the efficient use of public resources related to electoral commitments, fiscal stability, and economic growth in the medium and long term.
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Ratings of Rio de Janeiro Renovating and Strengthening Public Management for Brazil were as follows: outcome was satisfactory, Bank performance was satisfactory, and monitoring and evaluation quality was substantial.
... See More + Some of the lessons learned included: (i) One of the primary reasons for the achievements of the project was its focus on management and flexible design; (ii) A complementary lesson is the importance of close supervision and sharing of technical expertise; and (iii) The experience of the implementation revealed the importance of fostering new institutional arrangements and investing in career civil servants.
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Implementation Completion and Results Report ICR4283 NOV 30, 2017
The objective of the Comoros public expenditure and fiscal management review is to assist the Government of Comoros in strengthening the basis for the management of its public expenditure program.
... See More + The review takes stock of expenditure trends and the systems governing public spending, with an emphasis on strengthening fiscal sustainability, budget credibility and strengthening fiscal management in the electricity and service delivery sectors.
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Public Expenditure Review 120541 JAN 01, 2017
Mahdi,Shireen; Mansour,Wael; Klimowicz,Ewa Katarzyna; Said Ali Said,Antoissi; Ayi,Jean Gaspard NtoutoumeEnglishDisclosed
The objective of the Public Works and Urban Management Project for Burundi will be to enhance the climate resilience of key transport and drainage infrastructure in Greater Bujumbura while strengthening the country's capacity to manage and prevent natural disasters.
... See More + Negative impacts include: noise and vibrations, air quality degradation, groundwater, and land expropriation and compensation of other goods. The project is expected to reinforce physical infrastructure, reduce transportation costs, and improve transport system reliability to help increase traffic capacity. The increase in traffic capacity is expected to facilitate development, trade, and economic growth thus contributing to poverty reduction. The study has established a number of negative environmental consequences that the project activities are likely to induce. The main negative impacts are social impacts related to the land expropriation for the project and therefore compensation. It is believed that land expropriation will be carried out in accordance with Burundi’s and World Bank compensation laws. The compensation will be guided by the principal objectives that the Project Affected Persons (PAPs) will have their compensation on time before the project commences. In conclusion, therefore, provided the recommended mitigation and environmental and social management measures including the Resettlement Action Plan are effectively implemented during the construction and operation phases of the project, the anticipated environmental and social impacts will be mitigated. Therefore, this project is environmentally sound and socially viable.
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The project covers seven cities, encompassing nine urban local bodies: seven municipal corporations (MCs) and two urban improvement trusts (UITs).
... See More + The urban local bodies are responsible for infrastructure improvements in the cities. The cities are spread across three states in central and northwestern India: Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra. They range in size from 260,000 (Alwar) to 2.6 million (Pune), with most in the range of 300,000 to 500,000 inhabitants. Institutionally, municipalities in India are under little regulatory obligation to improve lighting quality to meet standards. India’s Code of Practice for Lighting, created in 1970 by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) to establish lighting standards for categories of streets and roads, and has not been updated since 1981. Further, as USAID report from 2010 notes, ‘since these guidelines are not enforced by any regulatory authority, it is common for municipalities to be unaware of the standards, and many fail to comply.’ Consequently, project upgrades are not driven by regulatory compliance but by municipalities’ initiative to save operating funds on electricity and maintenance, and to improve street lighting quality.
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This introductory guide has been developed by the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) with the support of the World Bank to explain to public sector leaders and their teams how integrated thinking and reporting can help the sector consider how make the most of resources, encourage the right behaviors and demonstrate to stakeholders how they are achieving the strategy and creating value over the short and longer term.
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Ethiopia’s remarkable socio-economic transformation over the last decade has been marked by: a reorientation of expenditure from recurrent to capital; a significant devolution of resources from Federal Government to Regions; and a clear prioritization of infrastructure spending, while protecting spending on education at four percent of GDP.
... See More + The Government of Ethiopia has also leveraged external resources to boost spending in pro-poor sectors, particularly health and social protection. As a result, Ethiopia is home to the largest social safety net program in Africa, and has also achieved remarkable health outcomes using cost effective approaches. Recent investments have seen a significant build-up of capital stock, with capital spending at sector level pointing towards increased service capacity. The current public investment-led strategy requires to be complemented by increased budgetary provisions in operations and maintenance so that new investments translate into enhanced service coverage and delivery. As Ethiopia lays the foundation to become a middle income country, and the changing global environment implies declining external assistance, it is imperative that domestic taxation activity support this transition. The current tax-to-GDP ratio is low compared to peer countries, and the tax structure would benefit from increased contributions by direct tax sources. Therefore, there is an immediate need for advancing tax reforms and improve capacity and quality of tax administration. Broadening the tax bases, through review of exemptions, as well as review of tax rates might be venues to consider. Additional revenues will create the much-needed fiscal space to increase funding for operations and maintenance for service delivery, and support fiscal sustainability. As a follow-up to this Public Expenditure Review, the Government of Ethiopia has asked the World Bank to provide further analytical support, with a view to enhance domestic revenue mobilization through simpler and more efficient taxation, while retaining equity priorities in public finances.
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The development objective of the Long Term Export Finance Project for Turkey is to improve access to longer term finance for export oriented small, medium, and large enterprises.
... See More + Some of the negative impacts and mitigation measures include: (1) participating financial institutions (PFIs) will be selected based on their expression of interest in participating in the project and on acceptance by Turk Eximbank of their credit risk, as well as the necessary eligibility criteria; (2) PFIs will be responsible for ensuring that sub-beneficiaries comply with the World Bank’s procurement procedures for the procurement of goods, works, non-consulting services, and consultant services under sub-finance, applicable Turkish environmental legislation and regulations, and the World Bank policy on environmental assessment; (3) PFIs will provide Turk Eximbank with a set of documentation for all sub-finance to enable it to maintain all project records and make them available for ex-post review by the World Bank or by external auditors as necessary; and (4) PFIs and the final beneficiaries of the credit line will be required to provide reasonable information for the purpose of monitoring and impact assessment during the life of the project (and for a certain period after the project), as may be requested by the World Bank and Turk Eximbank.
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The images of flattened buildings and tent cities that dominated the news following the Haitian earthquake of January 12, 2010 triggered an emergency response from the global aid and development community.
... See More + Foreign governments, multilateral organizations including the World Bank, and NGOs dramatically increased the flow of funding to the devastated country. The money helped pay for emergency relief but also for higher public investment spending that sought to repair damage and press ahead with development projects that had begun before the disaster. Six years later, the flow of aid is declining, and Haiti faces pivotal challenges: how to adapt to the reductions, raise more resources internally, spend more efficiently, and safeguard the fragile social gains it has achieved in a time of extreme hardship. The infrastructure Haiti has acquired in the recent surge of investment is something like a newly built house that lacks furniture and running water, it may look good from the outside but does little for its occupants. For the present, life remains a struggle for most of the country’s 10.4 million people. Thus in addition to growth, the country needs policies that will foster inclusiveness. Analysis and past experience suggest that two factors are key: human capital and political stability. To achieve this goal, Haiti will require a new outlook favoring fair, efficient government and social inclusiveness.
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The main purpose of this study is to monitor the business environment and assess the impact government policies and the regulatory requirements have on businesses operating in Moldova.
... See More + The project was carried out based on the following goals: (i) providing the government of the Republic of Moldova and the national and international institutions with quantitative data on the cost incurred by businesses to comply with government regulations; (ii) provide support to the government of Moldova on quality policy analysis with a view to implement the necessary decisions to improve business and investment climates in Moldova; (iii) assist the civil society institutions that make recommendations and need to monitor their impact; and (iv) establish a tool to monitor the evolution of business environment and the impact of the measures taken to reduce barriers and corruption in business. The sample covers 634 companies, excluding agricultural enterprises, individuals and banking institutions and the data was collected throughout October-November 2015. The key findings were as follows: (i) compared with two years ago, the registration procedures lasted longer; (ii) the number of companies that build their premises by themselves substantially decreased; (iii) the duration of obtaining licenses reduced from 18 to 11 days and, the licensing costs were reduced by about 40 percent compared to 2013; (iv) duration of import procedures maintained a downward trend since 2012; (v) the time needed for customs procedures for export remained at the past two years level; (vi) the time for certification of individual batches of goods decreased, but it grew for certification of product lines; (vii) the share of those who need sanitary certificates has decreased in the past five years, reaching 34 percent in 2015; (viii) the frequency of inspections has decreased, but the positive effect was canceled by the increase in time spent by inspectors at a company; (ix) the conditions on the procedures of registration and taxation have not changed; (x) the company’s share dropped more than three times compared to 2009; (xi) as a result of the economic crisis, the number of companies facing over staffing had increased; (xii) state involvement in the conclusion and execution of contracts was a rare practice; and (xiii) both the duration and cost of obtaining phytosanitary certificates were lower than for other types of certificates. To conclude, the general time indicator practically remained unchanged during 2009-2015. Small fluctuations were due to natural dispersion rather than any improvement or deterioration in perception.
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The images of flattened buildings and tent cities that dominated the news following the Haitian earthquake of January 12, 2010 triggered an emergency response from the global aid and development community.
... See More + Foreign governments, multilateral organizations including the World Bank, and NGOs dramatically increased the flow of funding to the devastated country. The money helped pay for emergency relief but also for higher public investment spending that sought to repair damage and press ahead with development projects that had begun before the disaster. Six years later, the flow of aid is declining, and Haiti faces pivotal challenges: how to adapt to the reductions, raise more resources internally, spend more efficiently, and safeguard the fragile social gains it has achieved in a time of extreme hardship. The infrastructure Haiti has acquired in the recent surge of investment is something like a newly built house that lacks furniture and running water, it may look good from the outside but does little for its occupants. For the present, life remains a struggle for most of the country’s 10.4 million people. Thus in addition to growth, the country needs policies that will foster inclusiveness. Analysis and past experience suggest that two factors are key: human capital and political stability. To achieve this goal, Haiti will require a new outlook favoring fair, efficient government and social inclusiveness.
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